Shopkeepers caught selling e-cigarettes to 14-year-old in Stockport

Two shopkeepers in Stockport have been prosecuted for selling e-cigarettes to a 14-year-old.

Mr Ahmed Ezat Jalili pleaded guilty to a sale of an e-cigarette to a child by an employee at his shop Stockport Convenience on Heaton Lane in July 2022.

The young person, who was a Trading Standards volunteer, did not provide any age identification when asked but the sale still went ahead.

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The owner was sentenced to a 12-month Conditional Discharge. He and Stockport Convenience Limited, which is now under new ownership, was ordered to pay a fine, prosecution costs and victim surcharges totalling £1100.

In January 2023 at Pound Hut on London Road in Hazel Grove a sale was made to the 14-year-old Trading Standards volunteer by Mr Syed Nasir Raza Shah.

Mr Shah did not ask the volunteer for any age identification and removed the packaging from the e-cigarette during the transaction.

Mr Shah initially denied selling the e-cigarette before eventually pleading guilty to the illegal sale at Tameside Magistrates Court on September 11.

The matter was adjourned for sentencing at Stockport Magistrates Court on November 1, 2023.

Advisory letters and visits had taken place prior to the test purchase visits.

Councillor Frankie Singleton, Stockport Council's cabinet member for communities, culture and sport, said: “We are committed to protecting our young people and we will do all we can to prosecute those who break the law in this way.

"We will not hesitate to take robust action to bring the perpetrators to justice, as this case demonstrates.”