A shop owner has pleaded guilty to selling knives to two 15-year-olds.

Sivarajah Devarajah, 49, owner of the STR Pound Plus store in Lower Addiscombe Road, was in court after he sold the utility knives to a boy and girl working as volunteers with Croydon Council's trading standards officers in October last year.

The youths were not asked for their age or for identification.

Devarajah was fined £350 by magistrates and ordered to pay £815 in costs.

Councillor Gavin Barwell, Croydon Council's cabinet member for community services and cohesion, said: "I hope these prosecutions act as a deterrent to shop keepers and remind them of their responsibilities when selling age-restricted items such as knives and alcohol."

Devarajah was prosecuted after the council did a series of checks in October and November last year as part of its Operation Safe for All campaign against youth crime.

Councillor Barwell said the council was "determined" to tackle knife crime and will continue making test purchases. He said: "We will not hesitate to prosecute those who sell knives to children."

The case is the thirteenth in a series of incidents of shops selling knives to schoolchildren. Croydon Council said it had made 48 test purchases of knives across the borough in October and November last year and caught 14 stores selling knives to youngsters.

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