THURROCK Council has defended its record of failing to take any shop to court for selling alcohol to under agers in a twelve month period.
The revelation came after a general freedom of information request asked the council to detail how many companies had been taken to court for any offence between the period June 2011 and June 2012 by the Trading Standards department.
The reply was:
1. Moylers, Tilbury – Children and Young Persons Act 1933 – sale of cigarettes to a person under 18. This case resulted from a routine test purchasing exercise carried out by Trading Standards using an underage test purchaser.
2. Heritage Paving – Road Traffic Act 1988 – vehicle found to be overloaded on a routine traffic weighing session carried out by Trading Standards.
In both the above cases the Magistrates’ court imposed fines after both pleaded guilty.
As this is alcohol awareness week (Nov 19th-25th), YT asked the council to account for the total lack of prosecutions.
