Using an undercover volunteer test purchaser, officers found both Fortress Lock & Safe Co. in Brixton and Penny Saver in Stockwell sold knives to a 14-year-old girl.
The two stores pled guilty and magistrates have handed down thousands of pounds in fines. Fortress Lock & Safe Co. were fined £6,000 and Penny Saver £1,200, as well as costs and a victim surcharge.
Cllr Mo Seedat, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety, said: “These businesses should be ashamed of selling knives to children whilst knowing the destruction knife crime is causing in our communities.
“I praise and thank our officers in taking tough action against these rogue businesses and I hope this action sends a strong signal to all shops in our borough – that they too play a part in ridding our communities of violence.
“If our public-health approach to making young people safer is to work we need every part of the community – schools, authorities, families and businesses – to work together.”
Magistrates also found that appropriate staff training, awareness and compliance with the Challenge 25 policy, which could have prevented the sales, had not been implemented by either business.
