Crime Solicitors

Croydon Council’s Trading Standards department has prosecuted a shopkeeper in Thornton Heath, after he sold alcohol to two underage customers.

On 25 September 2015, a boy and girl, both aged 14, went into the store as part of a test-purchasing exercise. They selected a bottle of beer from the shop floor display and took it to the counter.

The sales assistant accepted their money after failing to ask for proof of their age and the purchase went through. As a result, the shop assistant was given an £80 fixed-penalty notice at the time of the offence.

At Croydon Magistrates’ Court, Muhammad Mazhar Sidhu – as the licence holder of Costcutter in Norbury Road, Thornton Heath in Croydon, south London – pleaded guilty to selling alcohol to underage customers.

Sidhu was fined £325 and ordered to pay £2,529.50 in costs, with a £33 victim surcharge – a total of £2,887.50.

After the hearing, Croydon Council’s Cabinet Member for communities, safety and justice, Councillor Mark Watson said:

“It’s quite frustrating that, despite all the information and advice offered to shops across the borough – and the free Do You Pass? training available from our Trading Standards department – we’re still getting cases of the sale of age-restricted goods to young people.

“It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of traders – especially sole traders – taking advantage of all the help that’s offered to them.

“Apart from the traders’ obligation to abide by the laws around such sales, they have a moral obligation to safeguard those youngsters from the possible consequences of making a quick buck by selling alcohol, tobacco goods or knives to underage customers.

“I’d urge all the borough’s traders to take heed of the heavy fines and legal costs that follow when our officers catch them making these illegal sales – and realise that it simply isn’t worth the risk.”

This year, Croydon is running Do You Pass? training sessions in July and October – and uniquely to Croydon, the sessions will also feature a short presentation from Public Health Croydon called Protecting children and young people – everyone’s business.

Duncan Lewis Criminal Lawyers

Duncan Lewis criminal lawyers can advise at any stage of a public protection offence, selling illegal tobacco or alcohol, selling counterfeit goods, mislabelling offences, weights and measures offences, breaches of food hygiene, selling defective produce, health and safety breaches, or selling alcohol, tobacco or knives to underage customers.

There are Duncan Lewis offices nationwide and in most major cities – and Duncan Lewis can advise businesses and sole traders at the start of an investigation and before charges are brought.

For expert legal advice on public protection offences, call Duncan Lewis criminal lawyers on 0333 772 0409.