THE COUNCIL sent a teenager into a corner shop to buy a vape in a Trading Standards sting.
The 16-year-old girl walked out of the Dhwanee Supermarket, Banbury, with the ‘Skittles’-branded e-cigarette device.
The Warwick Road shop’s director, Ashishkumar Patel, 37, was convicted at Oxford Magistrates’ Court of two offences relating to the sale of the vape to a child and selling an e-cigarette that did not comply with 2016 tobacco products regulations.
Head of Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team, Jody Kerman, said: “Anyone who does sell age-restricted products but fails to make sure that they have taken adequate precautions should be aware of the serious potential consequences if they fail a test of this kind.
“In addition to this test purchasing work, our officers have been responding to complaints from parents and schools about alleged underaged sales at stores across the county and have made dozens of visits to local retailers because of them.
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“These visits have also resulted in us finding thousands of illegal, disposable e-cigarettes, which have been removed from sale.
"We are now working with retailers to ensure that any devices they do stock in future are fully legally compliant.”
A store assistant at the convenience store sold the disposable e-cigarette ‘vape pen’ to the child in March 2022.
The device was inspected by Trading Standards experts and found not to meet UK packaging standards.
The health warning did not cover a third of the rear surface of the packaging, there was no batch number on it, and there was no information detailing 'possible adverse effects' of the product.
A previous warning was given to the business about faults with that brand.
The vape pens could not be sold legally unless the faults were recognised, the council said.
Last week, Patel, of Harrow Road, Wembley, was fined £1,500 by the magistrates. He was ordered to pay £2,000 in prosecution costs.
Oxfordshire Trading Standards’ Jody Kerman said: “It is important that those people who want to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking have access to these products as they are one of the most effective methods of supporting a quit attempt.
“However, whilst e-cigarettes pose only a small fraction of the risk of traditional cigarettes, they are not risk-free products and we do not encourage young people who have never smoked before to begin using them.
“Many Oxfordshire retailers work very hard to train their staff and implement systems to prevent the sale of such items to children under the age of 18.
“The apparent rising popularity of disposable e-cigarettes amongst teenagers makes appropriate age verification checks essential and trading standards will continue to make test purchases to ensure that these are being rigorously carried out.”
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