An undercover operation by the Council’s Trading Standards team in August revealed that almost a third of shops sold cigarettes to children without checking for age identification.
Councillor Craig McLaughlin, spokesperson for Corporate Services said “The latest figures are a real disappointment and show that some shopkeepers still seem to be oblivious to the need to exercise vigilance when approached by children trying to buy things they are not allowed to buy. It is vitally important that shopkeepers don’t make it easy for young people to smoke. Scottish Government data shows that a child who starts to smoke in their early teens is five times more likely to die of lung cancer than someone who starts in their mid-twenties.”
Trading Standards Officer, Nicky Johnston said “Throughout August we conducted covert visits to 31 premises with specially trained children and nine shops sold a packet of cigarettes to a 15 or 16 year old with no questions asked. Whilst I would commend the majority of retailers who rightly refused the sale, I was very disappointed to observe a significant number of sales take place. We have done this kind of operation before but it appears that a number of shop owners and workers are still prepared to risk prosecution and a criminal record by selling cigarettes to kids.”
Nicky added “Three females and two males are subjects of reports being submitted to the Procurator Fiscal. A number of others will be issued with warning letters and will be subject to a further covert test purchase. Any shops in West Dunbartonshire who continue to supply cigarettes to children should be aware that we will be repeating this exercise at regular intervals. If compliance levels do not improve we will have to consider a zero tolerance approach to future offences which will mean all offenders, including shop owners, will be reported to the Procurator Fiscal regardless of circumstances.”
