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Camden News - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 31 December 2008

How the New Journal reported on a police undercover sting operation in August

Child knife shops are yet to be prosecuted

Calls for stores caught selling blades to face action

POLITICIANS have called for more aggressive prosecution of shops selling knives to children after the New Journal revealed that no action has been taken against a string of alleged offenders caught in highly publicised stings.
Teenage cadets and undercover police claimed to have snared three businesses in Kilburn High Road last week during a crackdown on shops selling knives to under-16s, a move greeted with a tough-sounding statement from the Town Hall’s environment chief, Councillor Chris Knight. He said: “Camden Council takes the underage sale of knives very seriously, and anyone found to be selling knives illegally could face prosecution.”
The raid follows a series of similar operations in Camden Town and Kentish Town this summer, in which the authorities claimed 10 shops sold knives to their “decoy” teenagers, including a 3ft Samurai sword.
But although the offence is serious enough to merit a maximum £5,000 fine or two-year jail sentence, no one has been prosecuted for the August raids by the Town Hall’s Trading Standards unit, which is charged with enforcing breaches of the Violent Crime Reduction Act.
Opposition politicians said last week that the delay in acting was undermining the fight against knife crime. Somers Town councillor Roger Robinson said: “If you don’t take action people just say, ‘so what?’. This sends a message to traders and indeed to people in the streets that you can do whatever you like.”
Cllr Robinson pledged to raise the issue at January’s full council meeting.
A Town Hall spokesman refused to disclose the names of the shops concerned or to comment on the number of stores being prosecuted, if any.
A statement read: “Camden Council actively works to prevent underage knife sales. We carried out a joint test purchase operation with the police in August and a number of cases have been referred to the council’s legal department for the evidence to be assessed with a view to commencing prosecutions.”
In every case, the New Journal understands, police used the same method. A teenage cadet entered the shop, shadowed by a police officer in plain clothes and watched over by more police and Trading Standards officers. They bought a knife or knives, as police looked on. Traders were then informed they had been caught in the sting.
The council spokesman was unable to explain what part of the evidence-gathering process had delayed prosecutions for four months.

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