Harrow off-licence has been prosecuted for selling whisky to a 13-year-old boy.

The owner of the Parade Corner Shop, in Palmerston Road, has been fined more than £6,000 after a sales assistant sold whisky to a 13-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy without checking their ages.

Trading Standards officers then chanced upon illegal cigarettes hidden under the counter when they entered the shop to challenge the assistant.

Simon Legg, senior regulatory service manager for Brent and Harrow Trading Standards, said: "Business owners have responsibility to make sure all their staff are properly trained to do the job given to them, especially in relation to the sale of age-restricted goods."

Shop owner Doru-Alin Golescu, 27, of Cheltenham Place, Harrow, failed to appear at Willesden Magistrates Court on March 1 for a second time, and the case was heard in his absence.

The court heard that, on July 23 last year, two boys aged 13 and 15, were able to buy a 35cl bottle of Famous Grouse whisky from Parade Corner Shop, Palmerston Road, Harrow.

The 13-year-old boy asked the sales assistant for the bottle, which was displayed behind the counter, and was sold the whisky without being challenged about his age.

After the sale, Trading Standards officers spoke to the sales assistant and noticed 63 packets of tobacco which did not have health warnings in English, and seized them.

There was no notice in the shop displaying the trader’s legal name and address.

Golescu said the assistant had been working for him for three to four months, but was unable to produce any record of training.

He added that he had been given the cigarettes for his own personal use.