TWO businesses in Oxfordshire have been prosecuted for selling disposable e-cigarettes to children.

Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards service conducted an investigation and found that both businesses sold the disposable e-cigarettes to 16 year old test purchasers in March this year, despite the legal age limit for the sale of e-cigarettes being 18.

Didcot Vaping Ltd, who trade as Didcot Vaping Store, pleaded guilty to selling an e-cigarette to a child and were fined £666 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £67 and the council’s full costs of £2,124.

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Jahngeer Hanif, 42, trading as Broad Street Supermarket in Banbury, also pleaded guilty to the same offence.

He was fined £600 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £60 and a contribution of £1,000 towards the council’s costs.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby, the council’s cabinet member for community services and safety, said: “Anyone who does sell age restricted products but fails to make sure that they have taken adequate precautions should be aware of the potential consequences if they fail a test of this kind.”

Jody Kerman, the council’s head of trading standards, said: “Prior to this test purchasing work taking place we visited all the business due to be tested to provide advice on preventing underaged sales.

“These visits also resulted in us finding thousands of illegal, disposable e-cigarettes, which have been removed from sale.”

A third company is due in court in January next year in relation to both selling an e-cigarette to a child and for selling an e-cigarette that does not meet the UK packaging standards for e-cigarettes.

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This story was written by Anna Colivicchi, she joined the team this year and covers health stories for the Oxfordshire papers. 

Get in touch with her by emailing: Anna.colivicchi@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @AnnaColivicchi