Selling cigarettes to a 15-year-old customer proved to be a costly sale for an Ayr chippy, which received a £100 fine for selling products to an underage person.
Ranjit Singh of Aldo's Fish and Chicken Bar was fined at Ayr Sheriff Court following a spot check for underage sales by South Ayrshire Council's trading standards team.
Since March 2007, the legal age for buying tobacco products has been 18 years and the Council works closely with local businesses to help them avoid any underage sales of cigarettes and tobacco as well as other age-restricted products.
To ensure businesses comply with the law, the Council regularly carries out routine test purchasing using young volunteers who attempt to purchase products such as fireworks, tobacco, spray paint and butane lighter refills to name but a few.
Test purchasing – which is carried out in accordance with strict national guidance agreed by Councils, police and the Scottish Government – involves sending a trained young volunteer who is representative of their age group to a store to attempt to buy an age restricted product.
It has proved to be very effective in identifying traders who fail to comply with the law.
Councillor Peter Convery, South Ayrshire Council's Portfolio Holder for trading standards issues, said: "There is a huge amount of support and advice available to traders to help them meet their responsibilities in relation to the sale of age-restricted products and our trading standards team is always on hand.
"We not only provide advice and assistance, we also carry out regular visits to see what else can be done to help avoid underage sales and our traders know we carry out test purchasing.
"We know it's not always easy to tell a young person's age so the easiest thing is to check for ID and if no appropriate ID, no sale – it's that simple. However, we still have traders who are failing to do this and we have to take action to ensure we stamp out underage sales in South Ayrshire.
"If a fine is what it takes to get the message across, then that's the action we'll pursue."
If you have concerns about underage sales taking place, or if you want advice on how to avoid underage sales, contact South Ayrshire Council's trading standards in confidence on 01292 616060.