In the first of a series looking at the work of Highland trading standards, Susy Macaulay goes out with officers to watch a young volunteers test-purchasing the sale of fireworks.
It is a fine autumn morning and the schools are off.
A teenager – he looks around 16 – walks across a supermarket car park in Inverness and heads inside.
Watched by a man lingering at a counter near the till, he asks staff if he can buy some fireworks.
The staff member asks for ID, and when the lad says he has none, he is told he can’t purchase any.
He leaves the supermarket empty-handed, followed by the man at the counter.
It is the first of 10 test-purchases Highland Council trading standards officers are carrying out that morning.
The volunteer test purchaser is a local schoolboy – let’s call him Stephen – and the man at the counter is a trading standards officer detailed to watch the proceedings to make sure the teen is OK.
Stephen carries on with the test purchases in Inverness and Easter Ross.
He is armed with a crisp £20 note and briefed each time as to where the fireworks are on display in the store.
If he’s asked for ID to ascertain his age and refused when he can’t produce any, the exercise has been a success as that is the outcome trading standards officers Catherine Cumming and Glenys Brown are looking for.
Ms Cumming said: “To buy fireworks you must be 18 or over.
“Retailers should know this, and should have prompts in place to ask for ID from the young person involved.”
At the end of the morning Stephen’s £20 is still intact, and there has only been one slight hitch when a shop assistant had to ask a colleague what the legal age is.
Ms Brown said: “She did the right thing and found out, and asked for ID, so there was no sale, which is the outcome we’re looking for.”
The team discovered no breaches during this year’s firework test purchases, an improvement on last year’s figures, when they carried out 37 tests, with four failures. The failures were successfully followed up, with no further action taken.
Trading standards are kept busy all year round with a programme of test-purchasing for other products, using volunteers from local secondary schools.
The youngsters also test-purchase cigarette lighter refills, corrosive substances, tobacco and vaping products which can only be sold to 18s and over.
In recent tests in Inverness and Easter Ross, the volunteer was sold cheap vaping products without being asked for ID.
Ms Brown said: “E-liquids are cheaper than cigarettes so that’s a market we have to look out for.
“The volunteer was sold an E-liquid for 90p, which raised alarm bells immediately.
“We test-purchased around 20 premises and three failed, so we issued fixed penalty notices.”
TOMORROW: Out on the streets of Lochaber with Dixie the tobacco detection dog
