Shop licence suspended after vape sold to 14-year-old

Nicholas Thomas, Local Democracy Reporter

A shopkeeper has apologised and had his premises licence suspended after a 14-year-old was sold a vape at his convenience store.

Newport city council’s licensing committee heard the teenager who bought the age-controlled product was in fact conducting a test purchase for trading standards, sent in after the local authority received complaints about the premises.

Licensing officer Steve Pontin said a member of the public had earlier alleged alcohol was sold to an underage group of customers at Sunny Express, 363 Malpas Road, in May this year.

When council officers visited the premises they found problems with the CCTV system, and were only provided with footage after warning shopkeeper Thisa Sachithanantham could face legal proceedings.

Mr Pontin said the test purchase failure in September was among “repeated concerns regarding age-restricted sales [and] the operation of the Challenge 25 policy” at Sunny Express.

Another licensing officer, Llyr Roberts, said the footage eventually provided to the council raised concerns about the shop’s “ineffective” use of Challenge 25.

Under that policy, staff should ask customers who look under 25 to show identification if they want to buy age-controlled products.

He showed the meeting stills from the CCTV footage, and one committee member – Cllr Debbie Harvey – said it was “clear to see that they are 14” in some of the images.

Mr Thisa told the committee he had been running the business for five years and knew the vast majority of his regular customers, including their ages.

“All those customers are at least 20-plus,” he said of the people shown in the footage.

Trading standards officer Vicki Cole confirmed the teenager who made the test purchase was not included in the CCTV footage presented to the meeting.

Mr Thisa said he was “truly sorry” another member of staff had sold the vape to someone under 18.

William Beer, from Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, told the committee tougher rules on tobacco products had led to a “significant decline in smoking rates”, but medical professionals were “still understanding” the effects of “relatively new” vaping products.

“Vapes will increase the prevalence of nicotine addiction among children,” he explained.

Cllr Harvey asked the shopkeeper whether he understood “the damage that vapes are causing to young children”.

‘Truly sorry’

Mr Thisa said he did, and repeated he was “truly sorry” for the incident.

“I will make sure that will never happen again,” he added.

After deliberations, the committee voted to suspend the premises licence at Sunny Express for one month, which council lawyer Samantha Burke said would give the business an opportunity for further staff training.

Following that suspension, the licence holder must be at the premises whenever “licensable activities are taking place”, she added.

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