Five Birmingham traders fined for selling knives to children
FIVE Birmingham have been fined for knives to children space of two months.
They were all prosecuted after failing to heed prior warnings from Trading Standards in what has been described as a ‘sad state of affairs’ by one city licensing chief.
The incidents come in the wake of several fatal stabbings in Birmingham this year with recent statistics showing knife crime across the West Midlands is on the rise.
The five traders, sentenced in June and July, all pleaded guilty to one offence of selling a knife to a person under the age of 18 years, in breach of the Criminal Justice Act.
Named in a report to Birmingham City Council’s Licensing and Public Protection committee, they are:
Toolman, Coventry Road, Yardley: sold a Hi-Tech cutter knife. The shop was fined £400 and ordered to pay £400 costs.
Poundplus,
Lozells traders selling in the
Road, Lozells: sold a three-pack of threeinch blade kitchen knives. Rabia and Sons Ltd was fined £400 and ordered to pay £500 costs.
Electrical and Hardware, College Road, Lozells: sold a jab saw. Jasbinder Pal Heer was fined £80 and had to pay £50 costs.
Pound’n’Over, Fairfax
Road, Turves Green: sold a heavy cutting knife with six extra blades. Mohammed Zahid was fined £400 and ordered to pay £1,259 costs.
Kam Electrical and Hardware, Church Road, Yardley: sold a jab saw. The shop was fined £1,000 and told to pay £1,141 costs.
A sixth trader also pleaded guilty but escaped punishment after being handed an absolute discharge by the court.
Majid Mahmood, Labour councillor for Bromford and Hodge Hill, called on Trading Standards to hand out leaflets to businesses emphasising the consequences of under-age knife sales.
“We’ve had a number of deaths in the city,” he said. “One death is too many and we need to do everything we can in our power to stop that happening.”
Paul Lankester, interim assistant director for regulation and enforcement, added: “All of those prosecutions happened after there had been a previous visit by Trading Standards advising them of the legislation.
“People still do things when they have been advised not to. It is a sad state of affairs. One stabbing is one too many.”
All of those prosecutions happened after there had been a previous visit by Trading Standards advising them of the legislation. People still do things when they have been advised not to.
Paul Lankester