No remorse from South Tyneside Council

It wasn’t our fault seems to be the claim

I have blogged here, here, and finally here, about the case of a South Tyneside shop assistant being caught up in a Council and Northumbria Police (acting in partnership) “sting” operation to catch out retailers who might break the law by selling knives to under aged people. Using a teenager as the “bait”, Trading Standards officials and police tested retailers by trying to purchase a knife from various shops, most passed the test admirably, but one apparently was caught out. However, the teenager working with “the partnership” bought a padsaw not a knife at one of South Shields leading retailers, resulting in the arrest and charge of the shop assistant; the woman has had her fingerprints and DNA sample taken and added to the police database, even though charges were later dropped. The retailer uses sophisticated software and a database that notifies assistants when an item could be purchased illegally, padsaws are not on that database, and if you are familiar with a padsaw you will know that it’s soft flexible toothed blade cannot be used in any fashion that we associate with a knife.

I thought that our Council, in partnership with Northumbria Police might be good enough to offer an apology to the retailer and the member of staff for this unfortunate “hiccup” in the operation, and be willing to address moves to have the shop assistant’s personal information (finger prints and DNA) removed from the database. So I emailed Cllr. Joanne Bell, whose leadership our Trading Standards team operate under, her response was to brush the matter under the carpet pass the matter on to an officer, rather than taking political responsibility. I have since received a reply from one of South Tyneside’s Trading Standards officers;

“reference your enquiry to Cllr Joanne Bell, our involvement as the local Trading Standards authority was merely to provide the volunteer children for this operation, the enforcement of the Knives Act is the responsibility of Northumbria Police and not this Authority. In the light of the above we obviously cannot comment, you may therefore wish to refer direct to Northumbria Police”

So, “it’s got nothing to do with us” seems to be the message, yet the original press release from South Tyneside Council proudly proclaims words such as “working together “, and “these joint operations with Trading Standards officers“, Cllr. Joanne Bell in the statement said

“Shopkeepers and members of the public should be in no doubt that we will take action wherever we come across underage sales”

Now that does not sound to me as though the fault lies solely with Northumbria Police! I feel there is a fundamental inability for one of our leading Councillors to accept any responsibility at all for this unfortunate matter, and that she is quite prepared to allow a South Tyneside resident to carry a permanent stain on her hitherto immaculate record as a result of this operation getting it wrong. I shamelessly publish my reply to the Trading Standards officer here;

“Thank you for dealing with this matter, however I must express my disappointment with your reply, and express my sadness that you have been put in this position by a leading politician who ought to have been able to comment on the matter. I fully understood the motives of addressing the issue and testing retailers in the manner that you did, however, the basic premise became flawed when the teenager bought a padsaw rather than a knife, and whilst you correctly assert that Northumbria Police are responsible for enforcement, the Council’s Press release at the time was emphatic in highlighting the “partnership” between the Council and the Police. The resulting mess now sees an innocent woman in the position of having her fingerprints and DNA sample added to Northumbria Police database, arrested and charged, worried to the point of exhaustion, and charges later dropped.

One feels that it should be incumbent upon the “partnership” to address moves to have her personal information (fingerprints and DNA sample) removed from the Police database, and to issue an apology to the shop assistant and the retailer involved, for the failure to conduct the test proficiently. Perhaps too, the Council and Police should make some recognition that NONE of the retailers tested , illegally sold a KNIFE to an under aged person during the course of the tests.

I would appreciate your willingness to press Cllr. Bell on this matter, and look forward to seeing her comments.”

The removal of these items from the database and an apology ought not to be too difficult to achieve through this “partnership”. Cllr. Bell, the ball is in your court!

Update 10.30 19th. June

Telephones are ringing all over South Shields, including those  in the Millbank HQ of Northumbria Police’ Area command!