Council prosecutes over illegal sales

Date Added: 26/10/2020

Court orders fines
Shop owners were hit by hundreds of pounds in fines and court costs after Central Bedfordshire Council sent under-age volunteers to buy alcohol – one as young as 13.

Back in June 2019, Kajan Navaratnam, of Bedford Square Newsagents, Houghton Regis, sold a can of Stella Artois to a 17-year-old.

Trading standards carried out two further test buys in September and November 2019 with underage buyers. In the second test Navaratnan sold a bottle of Echo Falls Summer Berries wine to a 13-year-old.

In court he admitted one count of selling tobacco products illegally under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and one offence of persistently selling alcohol to children contrary to the Licensing Act. He was fined £200 for each offence, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £32 and a contribution towards costs of £1,000 – a total cost to him of £1,432.

KDK Discount Food and Wine, High Street North, Dunstable was also visited by underage volunteer buyers in September 2019.

The two 16-year-olds were sold by the shop’s owner, Subramaniam Satkunaruban, a bottle of Archers Schnapps Aqua Raspberry.

In court Satkunaruban and licencee Shanthini Sivathasan both pleaded guilty to one offence of selling alcohol to persons under the age of 18. Satkunaruban was fined £300, ordered to pay a £32 victim surcharge and ordered to pay a £500 contribution towards costs, a total cost to him of £832. Sivathasan was also fined £300, ordered to pay a £32 victim surcharge and ordered to pay a £500 contribution towards costs, a total cost to her of £832.

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