BY ERIC KING
Waltham Forest’s council trading standard team recently fined an off license manager £1,800 for selling cigarettes to an under age 15-year-old girl during a Trading Standards sting.
The trap revealed the extent of negligence among some shop owners that expose an intolerable level of slackness. If this shop owner could get caught on a sting, just imagine how many other times this may have happened.
Cetin Tonbul, who manages the Quality Corner Off licence in Hale End Road Chingford, was caught an operation in November 2015. They set up the manager with a 15-year-old girl who successfully purchased a packet of Mayfair cigarettes without being asked for any identification.
The sale was made by the shop’s manager, Cetin Tonbul, of Hatch Lane, Chingford.
The Trading Standard team was accompanied by a police officer who witnessed the sale and noted Tonbul was on his mobile phone at the time, instead of paying attention.
At Thames Magistrates Court on 1 April 2016, Mr Tonbul pleaded guilty to a charge relating to the underage sale of cigarettes. The court fined him £800, ordered to pay £500 costs and a victim surcharge of £80, a total of £1830.
Shop managers and workers in the country are generally careful not to sell cigarettes to under age children, but this particular manger clearly paid the price for his carelessness.
