Shop fined for underage e-cigarette sale

A Shop has been ordered to pay £1300 for selling an e-cigarette to an underage person during a Tameside Trading Standards operation.

Tameside Magistrates Court heard today (8 April 2024) that council trading standards officers led the test purchase at Waz off licence in Ambleside, Stalybridge, on 7 August 2023.

The owner of the business, Syed Naqi Abbas Naqvi of Station Road, Hadfield, - who was representing the business - and employee Ali Khetab Iqbal of Kenyon Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, both pleaded guilty to the sale of an e-cigarette to a person under the age of 18.

Magistrates fined the business £750 plus ordered it to pay £300 victim surcharge plus £250 costs. Mr Iqbal was fined £80 plus ordered to pay a £32 victim surcharge and £250 costs.

A Tameside Council spokesperson said: “E cigarettes should not be used by, or targeted at, children – due to the risk and unknown harms involved. Most businesses are responsible in who they sell these products to but we continue to be proactive in uncovering those that break the law and put young people at risk and we will always take enforcement action against them.”