By Grâçia Ada Obi
The owner of a Ripley shop has been fined a total of £2,200 and ordered to pay £2,500 costs and a £880 victim surcharge after admitting selling a knife to an underage person.
The successful prosecution was brought by Derbyshire County Council’s trading standards following an investigation by officers on the team.
Company Director Omaid Darwish, 29, who owns and runs Bargain World in Oxford Street, Ripley, appeared before Southern Derbyshire Magistrates on Monday (December 2, 2024) to face a charge of selling a Kebo foldable knife with blades to an underage person, contrary to the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
The court heard that a test purchase exercise was carried out at the shop by trading standards officers in May this year during which the sale of the knife was made to a volunteer who was under the age of 18. No age or ID checks were asked for.
In sentencing, Judge Flint said: “Mr Darwish, the law is clear. There is always a risk when a knife gets into the hands of young people, and this risk remains whether it is a despicable zombie knife or a knife which is also considered a tool – knives are dangerous in the hands of youths.”
Derbyshire County Council Cabinet Member for Health and Communities Councillor Carol Hart said: “Unfortunately we are hearing about more and more incidents of crime where a knife is involved and the consequences can be devastating.
“It’s so important that we do all we can to keep knives out of the hands of people who want to use them to threaten or cause harm and our trading standards officers are working hard to tackle this issue.
“The law is clear that knives must not be sold to people under 18 years and retailers have a responsibility to check photo ID for proof of age of any customer of age-restricted products.
“I hope that following another successful trading standards prosecution the sentence handed down by the court will act as a strong deterrent and warning to suppliers of age-restricted items like knives.”
Darwish entered a guilty plea to the following charge:
Sale of a knife product to a person under 18 years. Contrary to section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 as inserted by section 6 of the Offensive Weapons Act 1996.
