Major stores caught selling knives to teenagers

Major stores caught selling knives to teenagers

Tesco and Argos have been breaking the law by selling knives to 16-year-olds without making proper ID

checks, a BBC investigation has found.

A 16-year-old actress, sent by BBC Watchdog, was able to buy a kitchen knife that it is illegal to sell to someone under 18 in Tesco and Argos.

Amazon broke its own delivery rules by handing over four knives ordered by the programme to the girl and leaving another one in a bin.

The firms said they will investigate.

In all, the teenager visited five different branches of Wilko, Asda, TK Maxx, Tesco and Argos.

In Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket, the teenage actress was sold a knife in three of the five stores that she visited, while one Argos store sold her a knife with no ID being checked.

Four of the knives ordered from Amazon were delivered into her hands and one was left in a bin, rather than following the company’s policy and refusing to hand them over to the teenager.

No branches of Wilko, Asda and TK Maxx sold a knife to the 16-year-old.

All of the retailers have signed up to a voluntary code in 2018, committing to check the ID of anyone they suspect of being under either 21 or 25 before selling or delivering a knife to them.

 

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