Banbury c-store owner fined heavily for selling vape to teen

A convenience store owner in Banbury has been prosecuted for selling a disposable e-cigarette to a child, following an investigation carried out by Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards service.

According to local reports, Ashish kumar Patel, the director of Dhwanee Supermarket Ltd in Banbury, has been found guilty of selling the disposable e-cigarette, sometimes known as a ‘puff bar’ or ‘vape pen’, to a 16 year old test purchaser in March 2022, despite the legal age limit for the sale of e-cigarettes being 18 and over.

On inspection the e-cigarette sold to the test purchaser was also found to not meet the UK packaging standards for e-cigarettes. This was despite a previous warning being issued to the business about the faults present with this particular brand and that they could not be legally sold unless the faults were rectified, reports stated.

Patel was found guilty of two offences following a trial at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on March 27. The first offence related to the sale of a vape to a child and the second was for supplying an e-cigarette that was not compliant with the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016.

In a court proceeding held last wee, Patel has been fined £500 in relation to the sale of an e-cigarette to a child and a further £1,000 for selling an e-cigarette that did not meet the UK packaging regulations. Patel was also ordered to pay £2,000 towards the council’s costs and a £150 victim surcharge.

Jody Kerman, Oxfordshire County Council’s Head of Trading Standards, said that it is important that those people who want to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking have access to these products as they are one of the most effective methods of supporting a quit attempt.

“However, whilst e-cigarettes pose only a small fraction of the risk of traditional cigarettes, they are not risk-free products and we do not encourage young people who have never smoked before to begin using them.

“Many Oxfordshire retailers work very hard to train their staff and implement systems to prevent the sale of such items to children under the age of 18. The apparent rising popularity of disposable e-cigarettes amongst teenagers makes appropriate age verification checks essential and trading standards will continue to make test purchases to ensure that these are being rigorously carried out,” reports quoted Kerman as saying.