Lethal knives sold to 14-year-olds (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Lethal knives sold to 14-year-olds

11:18am Wednesday 8th November 2006 in Wiltshire By Sarah Singleton

An undercover survey by trading standards officers has found more than one in three Wiltshire traders sold knives to underage teenagers.

Trading standards officers at Wiltshire County Council visited 54 retailers across the county to check that shopkeepers would refuse to sell knives to 14-year-olds.

A total of 19 retailers sold a knife to an underage volunteer.

In Kennet, seven out of eleven stores visited sold knives to the 14-year-old, and in North Wiltshire four out of 11 were prepared to make the sale.

The stores, visited during the October school half term holiday, ranged from small hardware stores to large department stores and supermarkets.

The knives sold included kitchen knives, steak knives, craft knives and DIY type knives. The largest knife sold was a butchery knife with a seven-inch blade.

“We are shocked by these results. The work of the trading standards service shows the need for monitoring underage sales of knives, particularly when the topic of knife attacks is under considerable debate at present.''

Chief trading standards officer Steve Clover

Steve Clover, Wiltshire's chief trading standards officer, said: "We are shocked by these results. The work of the trading standards service shows the need for monitoring underage sales of knives, particularly when the topic of knife attacks is under considerable debate at present.' "Most retailers are fully aware of the legal requirements when selling knives to children under the age of 16.

"However, there are a few that are not aware that the Offensive Weapons Act also extends to selling any knife that could be adapted for use to cause injury to someone else.

"On this occasion we are warning and advising the retailers concerned since the exercise was carried out to establish the extent of non-compliance in Wiltshire.

"In future, however, we will not hesitate to prosecute the sellers."

Under the Offensive Weapons Act 1996 it is an offence to sell to a person under 16 knives, knife blades, razor blades, axes or any other article which has a blade or is sharply pointed, and which is made or adapted for use for causing injury to a person.

If found guilty of an offence, businesses and sellers face a maximum fine of £5000 and / or six months imprisonment.

In total sales were made in 19 out of 54 premises, giving a rate of sales at 35 per cent.