Shop owner to pay £2000 for selling vapes to fifteen year old, following council prosecution

A prosecution brought by the London Borough of Harrow has seen a newsagent ordered to pay more than £2000 for selling vapes to a fifteen-year-old girl even after she had told him her age.

Council officers were carrying out compliance checks in the area in October 2022 and found that even after asking for the child's age, the owner sold them two vapes during a test purchase.

At Willesden Magistrates Court earlier this month (15 June), the man admitted the offence and that he failed to demonstrate that he took all reasonable precautions to avoid the sale taking place.

The court heard how he was trained and fully aware of his responsibilities as a business owner regarding the sale of age-restricted products.

During an interview, he said he believed one child was 18 and was accompanying the other. He also claimed he made a mistake because he was having a bad day.

The Magistrates gave him a fine of £646 and ordered him to pay a £258 victim surcharge and costs of £1136, a total of £2040.

Cllr Anjana Patel, Cabinet Member for Environment and Community Safety, said: "The law is clear on selling products that are harmful to children – it's prohibited. That is why these items have age restrictions on them.

Cllr Patel added: "It is concerning that this trader despite full well knowing the law still proceeded to sell underage products to children – even when they confirmed their age. While this was a test purchase it could have easily been a vulnerable young person.

"Every business has a duty of care to keep the public safe and comply with the law which [the owner] failed to do. We will continue to carry out work to keep people safe and take action against businesses operating illegally."

The prosecution comes two weeks after an announcement by the Department of Health and Social Care that it will conduct a review on allowing Trading Standards to issue 'on-the-spot' fines and fixed penalty notices more easily to shops selling vapes to children.

In its effort to clamp down on children using vapes, the Department also announced a review on banning the sale of nicotine-free vapes to under-18s and that a loophole that allows the vaping industry to give free samples of vapes to children in England is set to be closed.

Adam Carey