Shops helping arm kids with knives at 13
LAWS ARE BEING BROKEN
CHILDREN as young as 13 are being sold knives illegally by up to one in four shops.
In just one area an underage teenager bought a lock knife and a 14-year-old was sold a nine-inch serrated knife.
The report comes after official crime figures revealed that England and Wales had suffered a 20% knife crime rise in a year.
In London, where 12 teens have been stabbed to death since Christmas, 96 shops sold knives and blades to teens as young as 13. London Trading Standards and police made 725 test buys in 2016.
Four retailers, including a supermarket, sold razor blades or craft knives to two boys, aged 15 and 16, in tests by Royal Greenwich Trading Standards and police.
Croydon Council prosecuted a trader who ® sold a four-piece craft knife set to two underage teens and the store was ordered to pay more than £2,000 in fines and costs.
In the South West, more than a quarter of shops, seven out of 29, sold a knife to a an under 18-year-old – including two supermarkets. A machete, a lock knife, kitchen knives and a nine-inch serrated knife sold to a 14-year-old were among the test buys.
Now the Local Government Association is demanding retailers fund test buying and help councils improve compliance.
Simon Blackburn, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: “The sale of knives needs to be checked by asking for proof of age if a retailer is unsure the buyer is under 18.”