Baker fined for false food coupon claims

Owners of a bakers’ shop appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court in March 1949 charged with breaching food rationing regulations introduced during World War Two.

The firm of A&M Gardner Ltd, Stirling Street, Denny, were fined £50 after they were found guilty of over-stating the number of food coupons they had processed.

Under the rationing system,items were allocated a number of points.

Customers could only purchase food and clothing equivalent to a set number of points every month. People buying items handed over to shopkeepers coupons detailing the number of points they had used.

Traders then had to regularly send the coupons they received to Food Offices where checks on the system were carried out.

The court was told that over fourmonth period in 1948, Gardner’s claimed to have processed coupons with a points value of 4900, when the figure was less than that.

However, partners in the firm claimed envelopes in which the coupons had been sent were tampered with and removed before they arrived at the food office. They insisted they had been checked before leaving the premises.

Fiscal Mr William Hawthorn said it was obvious if some firms were going to declare a lot of points to which they were not entitled, they were going to be in an advantageous trading position.

“If this system were to be undermined it would be an end to this type of rationing,” he added.

“If people were allowed indiscriminately to make false returns it would be an end entirely to this carefully balanced system.”

An agent for the firm said the coupons were smaller than postage stamps and he claimed traders faced difficulties in counting the thousands handed to them.

Fourteen years of rationing in Britain ended on July 4, 1954, when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted.