A CHELMSLEY Wood shop has been banned from selling knives following a landmark ruling.
Solihull Council’s Trading Standards team sent an undercover customer into Premier store on Bosworth Drive last October and were able to buy a knife.
The store’s licence was reviewed and it is now unable to stock knives in the first successful ruling of its type in the West Midlands.
Although the shop was not selling nitrous oxide canisters it has also barred from selling them in the future.
The licensing panel agreed and the shop is now not allowed to stock knives under ‘the prevention of crime and disorder’ licensing objective.
The new conditions of the licence mean CCTV must be installed and operational at all times.
At least one member of staff must be trained to operate it and download images upon request.
Training must be provided to all staff around checking ages through Challenge 25 and keeping an incident book in which refusals to sell are logged.
The Licencing team’s argument was that while knives aren’t illegal to sell, if the applicant had disclosed they wanted to sell knives at the point of application, the team would have objected to the licence.
West Midlands Police said: “It was felt that action needed to be taken to prevent items commonly linked to crime and anti-social behaviour from being readily available.
“There are obvious risks associated with selling knives, making crime and anti-social behaviour more likely where they are sold.
“This is the first time a shop has had its licence changed in this way in the West Midlands.
“No other premises has previously had this type of condition applied to their licence that forbids them from selling knives, cannabis paraphernalia and nitrous oxide canisters.”
