Walsall newsagent in court for selling cigarettes to youngsters
The owner of a newsagent’s in Walsall town centre has been prosecuted by Trading Standards and fined £1640 for selling single cigarettes to an underage test purchaser. Aryan Adam of KNN News, Park Street Arcade pleaded guilty to the charges on 12 December at the Black Country Magistrates Court in Wolverhampton. The two separate offences under Children and Young Persons legislation involved the illegal sale of cigarettes to a child. He was fined £400 for each offence, plus a £40 victim surcharge and £800 in costs – for what the Judge described “as a very serious offence.”
Acting on tip offs from the public, Walsall Trading Standards visited the shop premises and noticed an open packet of cigarettes on the counter and warned Mr Adam that it was an offence to sell single cigarettes in this manner. The actual breaches for which he was charged took place at the newsagent’s in the spring of 2019, and were part of an undercover Trading Standards swoop in the borough to tackle illegal tobacco sales to minors. A fifteen-year-old volunteer, working on behalf of Trading Standards visited the shop on 24 April 2019, – Adam, despite his earlier caution from Walsall Council, still sold the underage tester two cigarettes.
Stuart Powell, Trading Standards, Team Leader at Walsall Council said: at Walsall Council said: “I’m very pleased with the Court ruling. Selling single cigarettes to adults is illegal, but sales to children are particularly worrying and completely unacceptable. Single cigarettes sold at pocket money prices, are clearly aimed at an underage market. They carry no warnings and encourage children to take up damaging smoking habits which could have a lifetime impact on their health.
“Sales like this also undermine our Public Health efforts around smoking prevention and Walsall Trading Standards is determined to root out these rogue traders and hold them to account.”
