Fuel stations warned after selling petrol to a 'child'

Sep 9 2010 by Leona Greenan, Hamilton Advertiser

THREE filling stations in South Lanarkshire have received formal warnings after petrol was sold to an underage person.

The sales were made to a 14-year-old carrying out test purchases on behalf of the council's Consumer and Trading Standards Service.

The companies, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were warned for breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Petroleum (Consolidation) Act 1928.

The test purchase exercise visited eight petrol stations across the county during August. At three of them the volunteer youth was able to dispense and buy petrol.

This amounts to a 37.5 per cent failure rate.

Helen O'Neill divisional Trading Standards officer responsible for Licensing and Investigations in South Lanarkshire is determined to crack down hard on those flouting the law.

She said: "Allowing young people access to petrol, sets up the chance that it could be used for the wrong means, with the potential to cause fire and serious injury.

"There is also the possibility of it being used for noise and reckless behaviour associated with mini motorbikes and quad bikes being ridden by children obviously under the age of 16.

"We would urge petrol station owners to make sure their staff are suitably trained to recognise young people under the age of 16, or where in doubt, to question or ask for proof of age. We will be repeating this exercise shortly."