POLICE and trading standards have been targeting stores in the Malvern area to ensure they aren’t selling age restricted items to children.
The test purchasing operation carried out by Malvern Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) alongside Worcestershire Trading Standards (WTS) aims to prevent the sale of 18+ products such as tobacco and vapes to children and young teenagers.
Operations like these coincide with other joint Malvern SNT and WTS plans to crackdown on the sale of counterfeit tobacco, which are smuggled into the UK and illegal vapes which exceed the maximum amounts of nicotine.
Several raids have been carried out recently to confiscate counterfeit tobacco and illegal vapes being sold by stores in the Malvern area.
Often these types of police operations rely on information passed to them by members of the public.
Anyone concerned about a Worcestershire retailer partaking in the trading standards issues raised in this article are asked to visit the ’Report It’ page of worcestershirets.gov.uk or call Consumer Direct on 0808 223 1133.
