Convenience shop owner fined after bottle of WKD alcohol sold to 15-year-old
A convenience store owner has been ordered to pay almost £2,000 in fines and costs after a 15-year-old was able to buy a bottle of alcohol from his shop.
Thavaraja Thevakapilan, the owner of the Premier shop on Scotland Street in Ellesmere, has been ordered to pay fines and costs of £1,924 for the sale of alcohol to a minor under the age of 18.
A test purchase was arranged by trading standards officers and West Mercia Police at the store in June last year after information had been received that age-restricted products were being sold to minors from the premises.
A 15-year-old volunteer attempted to and successfully purchased a 700ml bottle of WKD Blue without being challenged about their age.
Mr Thevakapilin was fined £660 and ordered to pay court costs of £1,000 and a victims surcharge of £264 at Telford Magistrates Court on Monday, March 4.
Councillor Chris Schofield, Cabinet member for planning and regulatory services, said: “I am very pleased with the outcome of this prosecution and hope it sends out a timely reminder to any business selling age-restricted products of the need to ensure they remain diligent and utilise practices that will prevent sales to minors occurring.
“This case serves as a useful reminder to the public to report any concerns they may have to us in relation to underage children accessing age-restricted products.
“We will continue to employ the use of test purchasing exercises throughout the year, targeting businesses where we have received intelligence or information that sales may be occurring to ensure that businesses are adopting these simple practices.
“Where businesses refuse or fail to take such reasonable measures then we will not hesitate to use the full weight of the law in the event of a sale occurring.
"This will include the use of Fixed Penalty Notices, legal action in the courts and, where any business is licensed to sell alcohol, then we will also consider applying for a review of the premises licence.
"These reviews can result in a licence being revoked, suspended for a period of time or additional conditions being applied to the licence.”
