Wandsworth newsagent fined for selling cigarettes to children
8:20am Monday 6th February 2012 in Where I Live
Newsagent fined for selling cigarettes to children
A newsagent has been prosecuted by the council’s trading standards team after he was caught selling cigarettes to a juvenile.
Sheikh Imran, owner of Imran's News, in Battersea Park Road, sold cigarettes to a 15-year-old girl during a special operation targeting shopkeepers suspected of breaking smoking laws.
Mr Imran pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined £100 and ordered to pay another £100 in costs and victim's surcharge.
If he commits further similar offences he could be banned from selling tobacco products in his shop for up to one year.
Since October 2007, it has been illegal to sell cigarettes to people under the age of 18.
Houda Al-Sharifi, director of public health for Wandsworth, said: "The law is in place because it is important that society does all it can to limit the availability of tobacco to young people.
"Smoking is extremely harmful to a person's health and the earlier people start smoking the greater the health risks they will face throughout their lives."
As well as tobacco, it is illegal for a shop to sell alcohol, fireworks, knives and solvents to anyone under the age of 18 - anyone buying an aerosol paint spray must be at least 16-years-old.
Councillor Jonathan Cook, trading standards spokesman at Wandsworth Council, said: "It is vital that harmful products like cigarettes and alcohol do not get into the hands of children.
"This is also true of other dangerous products like knives, fireworks, solvents and paint sprays - which is why trading standards officers conduct regular operations using specially trained young people to catch those unscrupulous and careless shopkeepers who sell these items to under-age customers."
Anyone with information or concerns about items being unlawfully sold to children should call trading standards on (020) 8871 7720 or email tradingstandards@wandsworth.gov.uk.
