Dagenham shop fined £600 for selling knife to 15-year-old
The knife pictured above was sold to a 15-year-old girl in Chadwell Heath. - Credit: Archant
A shop owner has been fined hundreds of pounds after a member of staff sold a knife to a 15-year-old girl.
Chadwell Handy Shop Ltd in Dagenham was caught out by a council-led covert operation and fined £600.
Employee Varinder Singh initially told the girl that he could not sell her the knife after asking her age.
But as she tried to leave the High Road store, he called her back and sold her the 20cm blade.
During the sentencing at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court on November 25 it was revealed that Singh had actually believed the customer to be 13 – five years younger than the required age of 18.
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Cllr Laila Butt, cabinet member for enforcement and community safety, said she did not think the fine was high enough considering that youth knife crime is a problem.
“I would like to see far tougher sentences where it comes to irresponsible traders recklessly selling knives to youngsters,” she said.
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“Our children, grieving parents and families and the wider community often pay a far higher price in terms of lives lost to knife crime.”
The shop was also ordered to pay costs of £774 and a £60 victim surcharge. Singh was fined £150 and will pay costs of £200 and a victim surcharge of £30.
