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Fireworks ‘trap’ scares off law-abiding shopkeepers
• IT IS not easy to buy fireworks before Bonfire Night. I have done so for many years and would like to continue to buy fireworks now.
I therefore went to a shop in Camden Town, where the owners told me that, sadly, they were not selling fireworks this year.
They had been visited by a customer – who turned out to be a council official who bought some cigarettes.
The official was accompanied by a young woman whose face was partly veiled. The official disclosed that the young accomplice was aged under 18, making the sale possibly an illegal one.
The tobacco sale is currently under consideration.
The couple who run the store are, to my knowledge, absolutely honest and law-abiding.
They have served local people for 20 years, watching families grow up and knowing their customers.
They have a large sign saying it is illegal for tobacco to be sold to those under 18.
I am extremely disturbed by what I discovered as I consider that what looks like entrapment.
Evidently the council then saw fit to ask the trader if he would be wanting a licence to sell fireworks over the coming season (for which they would be charged some £70).
The shop would then (as hitherto) have to be vetted by police, fire services and council; having been trapped on an allegedly improper sale of tobacco once, not unsurprisingly our traders decided not to expose themselves to investigative hazard.
The result of this is to alienate two splendid local people who have served their community well, quite close to their retirement age.
Come on council – less of a heavy hand please!
Perhaps you could also publish a list of shops which are indeed going to sell fireworks.
Mallory Wober
Lancaster Grove
NW3
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