A father and son who illegally sold a seven-inch knife to a child have been ordered to pay more than £3,000. Hardware store owner Abdul Kazemi, 47, and his 19-year-old son Syamoddin Kazemi were slapped with a hefty fine and ordered to pay court costs after the illegal sale to an underage teen. Trading standards sent a 16-year-old into GK Homeware Limited in Welling, south east London, to buy a knife last June.
Instead of asking for photo ID and stopping the sale, the worker made no attempt to check their age and sold the 7in (18cm) blade to the minor. London Borough of Bexley’s Trading Standards team prosecuted the pair and they were hauled before the courts. The father and son were forced to cough up a total of £2,480 at Bexley Magistrates Court.
The pair, from Erith, south east London, were each fined £600, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £240 and an extra £400 in court costs. Magistrates also ordered the hardware store to pay an extra £549 in costs. In January last year, the store owners were advised about the sale of knives and the importance of asking for proof of age from customers who appeared under 25, the council said.
Peter Craske, Bexley council’s cabinet member for places, said this week: “Selling knives to under 18s is illegal and a very serious offence. Policies such as asking anyone who looks under 25 for proof of identity are in place to protect the local community. Our Trading Standards team works closely with the police to ensure local businesses comply with the law.
“We will not hesitate to take strong action where the safety of the public is called into question in this way.”
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According to a report from the Ministry of Justice nearly 20,000 crimes were carried out in the UK last year using knives and other weapons - with almost 20 per cent committed by children. A report said: “In the year ending March 2022, 19,555 knife and offensive weapon offences were formally dealt with by the Criminal Justice System.
“This is an increase of five per cent since the year ending March 2021.”
Of these offenders, juveniles under 18s made up 18 per cent of the cases, painting a concerning picture of child knife crime in the UK, authorities warned. London Borough of Bexley’s Trading Standards team said it regularly carries out a programme of test purchasing to verify the compliance of local shops when selling age-restricted goods.
