A store owner has been ordered to pay almost £2,000 after selling a utility knife to a 15-year-old.
Apputukan Padmakumar admitted selling the kitchen knife, which was on display at his store, 7 Days, in Thornton Road, Croydon.
The store, which sells a wide mix of household items and DIY products as well as food, was targeted by the council in a crackdown.
Croydon Magistrates’ Court heard that the teenager was a volunteer working alongside the council’s trading standards service to check if the borough’s shops were selling knives to anyone under the legal age.
During the sale, which was witnessed by a trading standards officer in October last year, the shopkeeper neither asked the boy’s age nor for proof of identity. The court fined Padmakumar £1,000 and ordered him to pay £807 costs.
Padmakumar pleaded guilty by letter, writing: “I find trading standards operations unfair and unjust because they didn’t provide a warning of such tests in the area.”
