Slough Borough Council’s trading standards have secured another successful prosecution against a trader whose staff sold a knife to a minor during a test purchase exercise.
Mr Baljinder Singh Hansra, owner of AB Superstore on the High Street in Slough, was fined £250 for the sale, £200 costs, plus £15 victim surcharge at Maidenhead Magistrates Court on Friday, October 23.
One of Mr Hansra’s staff sold the seven piece knife set on February 18, to a young person without asking for ID.
However, credit was given for Mr Hansra’s early guilty plea and previous good character and the magistrates felt the offence was caused by a lapse rather than a regular occurrence.
The court further acknowledged the improvement in security measures he had taken to prevent such incidents from happening again.
In addition to this, trading standards carried out a Slough test purchasing exercise on October 29 for underage knife sales and visited 25 premises – where no sales were made to two young volunteers.
Some of the premises had stopped selling knives all together.
Slough Trading Standards Officer, Dean Cooke, said: “We’re committed to ensuring our town is kept safe by shop owners taking the responsibility of not selling age-related products to minors.
“It’s very encouraging that young people are now being challenged and this may be the result of the recent enforcement action carried out by us, in addition to the education Trader Information Packs we deliver personally to all sellers of underage goods in the borough.
“However, it’s a matter of concern that some traders have chosen to simply stop selling knives altogether. It’s very important to note this is not the intention of trading standards. All we ask is that traders take responsibility for these products by asking young consumers to show proof of ID.”
Commissioner for community and Slough leisure, Cllr Shafiq Chaudhry, added: “The council is committed to making sure shops sell products to the right people and the trading standards team have worked tirelessly to ensure this.
“It’s also welcome news that the 25 shops visited all refused to sell the knives to the young volunteers. May this continue.”
Slough Borough Council
