Croydon Council’s campaign to stop the sale of knives to children has seen three more stores prosecuted for selling blades to school children.

The owners of Aladdin’s Cave, in Addington Road, Jeffrey and Collard, in London Road, Thornton Heath, and Lorimers, in Brighton Road, Purley, pleaded guilty to the illegal sale of knives at Croydon Magistrates’ Court.

It brings the total to 10 successful prosecutions following a series of checks by the council’s trading standards service last year.

Between October 25 and November 7 2008, 48 test purchases took place across the borough where 14 stores sold knives to young people under 18.

At separate hearings last Friday, the court was told that young volunteers, accompanied by council trading standards officers, visited the stores.

Two 15-year-old girls were sold a knife from Lorimers, two school girls aged 14 and 15, bought a meat cleaver from Aladdin’s Cave and a 15-year-old boy was sold a pack of blades from Jeffrey and Collard in October.

In all three cases the test purchasers were not asked their age or for proof of identity.

Following their guilty pleas, the shop owners were fined a total of £1,850 and ordered to pay court costs.

Councillor Gavin Barwell, cabinet member for community safety and cohesion, said: “We are pleased to have secured three more successful prosecutions in our efforts to tackle the problem of knife crime.

"I hope they act as a warning to others.

“Unfortunately, what our checks have shown is that far too many stores in the borough are still selling potential weapons to young people.

"We want shop owners to start taking responsibility for their actions and to provide formal training for their staff on selling age-restricted products.

“We intend to continue with our programme of underage test purchasing and will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who sells knives to children.”

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