{"id":63793,"date":"2024-08-14T15:51:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T14:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/?p=63793"},"modified":"2024-08-15T17:01:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T16:01:32","slug":"local-shopkeepers-urged-to-ask-for-id-after-trader-is-prosecuted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/local-shopkeepers-urged-to-ask-for-id-after-trader-is-prosecuted\/","title":{"rendered":"Local shopkeepers urged to ‘ask for ID’ after trader is prosecuted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We’re urging shopkeepers not to put their livelihood at risk, and ask for ‘ID’ when selling age-restricted goods such as vapes, tobacco and alcohol.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our warning follows the prosecution of a shopkeeper who has been ordered to pay more than \u00a33,500 after being caught selling vapes to a 15-year-old girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a prosecution by our trading standards service, Henri Andre Bitton, 74, of Gemini Vapes in Eastover, Bridgwater pleaded guilty at Taunton Magistrates Court on Tuesday 13 August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The girl was in fact a volunteer in a test purchasing exercise on behalf of the Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Trading Standards Officer, who was inside the shop at the time, saw Bitton make the sale without first asking for ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the purchase, the officer showed Bitton a photo of the volunteer \u2013 Bitton said she was \u2018over 18\u2019 and insisted that he had \u2018sufficient experience\u2019 to identify those that were underage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitton told the court that he didn\u2019t realise the volunteer\u2019s age and he is blind in one eye and has blurred vision in the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when another customer tried to purchase a vape the defendant said he \u2018could tell\u2019 that she was over 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The officer disagreed and asked for ID which confirmed that she was underage; and it was only at this point that the defendant refused to make the sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court heard that Bitton had every opportunity to ask for ID and if the officer hadn\u2019t asked, the sale would have been made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chair of the Bench said it was \u2018a concerning case\u2019 and that the protection and welfare of young people was paramount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitton was ordered to pay \u00a31,200 in fines, costs of \u00a31,880 and a victim surcharge of \u00a3480, totalling \u00a33,560.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Councillor Rufus Gilbert, our Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery and Skills said: <\/p><\/div>\r\n \t\t

\u201cThis ongoing operation aims to remind local businesses of their responsibilities and enforce the law on selling age restricted products when required.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a range goods that many business owners might not usually think about as being age-restricted, including for example vapes, tobacco products, alcohol, computer games, knives, pets, tanning services and DVDs. Underage sales are a criminal offence and any premises found not to be complying with the law could face prosecution in the Courts and they may also lose their licence to sell certain products.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge traders to review their procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\t
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\r\n Councillor Rufus Gilbert, Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery and Skills<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n <\/figure>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/div>\n\n
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Alex Fry, Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service\u2019s Operations Manager, said: <\/p><\/div>\r\n \t\t

\u201cThe bright colours and sweet flavours of vapes are attracting young people and so it is essential that store owners ensure that they do not sell these products to children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere premises fail test purchase operations, we will take a good look at the measures which were in place before deciding what action to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case the owner was given ample opportunity to ask for ID and he did not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who do not follow the regulations are putting their livelihood at risk and we will take court action where necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most effective way to safeguard your businesses is to ask for ID. It\u2019s such a simple thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\n <\/div>\n\n\n

Businesses can sign up for a free \u201cNo Proof of Age – No Sale (NPOANS)\u201d Toolkit that provides easy to use guidance on how to prevent the illegal sale of age restricted goods and services by following this link. <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":859,"featured_media":63795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"featured_image":{"ID":63795,"title":"vape","alt":"Vape","description":"","caption":"","url":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","width":1024,"height":682,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape-400x270.jpg","thumbnail_width":400,"thumbnail_height":270,"medium":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape-600x400.jpg","medium_width":600,"medium_height":400,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape-768x512.jpg","medium_large_width":768,"medium_large_height":512,"large":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape-800x533.jpg","large_width":800,"large_height":533,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","1536x1536_width":1024,"1536x1536_height":682,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","2048x2048_width":1024,"2048x2048_height":682,"thumbnail_featured":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape-770x450.jpg","thumbnail_featured_width":770,"thumbnail_featured_height":450,"thumbnail_sidebar":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape-200x135.jpg","thumbnail_sidebar_width":200,"thumbnail_sidebar_height":135,"banner-block":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","banner-block_width":440,"banner-block_height":293,"small-banner":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","small-banner_width":640,"small-banner_height":426,"medium-banner":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","medium-banner_width":1024,"medium-banner_height":682,"small-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","small-thumb_width":640,"small-thumb_height":426,"medium-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","medium-thumb_width":320,"medium-thumb_height":213,"large-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","large-thumb_width":420,"large-thumb_height":280,"slideshow-preview":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","slideshow-preview_width":300,"slideshow-preview_height":200,"slideshow":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2024\/08\/vape.jpg","slideshow_width":800,"slideshow_height":533}},"category_priority":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-08-14 14:26:47","action":"delete","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/859"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63806,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63793\/revisions\/63806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}