Tower Hamlets shop fined after underage nicotine vape sale

Tower Hamlets Council says a local shop and a member of staff have been fined after a nicotine vape was sold to a 17-year-old volunteer during a Trading Standards test-purchase operation.

The council’s 5 October 2026 announcement says Tower Hamlets Trading Standards officers worked with the Metropolitan Police and Volunteer Police Cadets on 4 August 2025 to check compliance with age-restricted sales laws. During that operation, the volunteer was sold a nicotine-containing vape at Al-Haramain Superstore on Whitehorse Lane, E1, without being challenged for proof of age.

The council says Al-Haramain Ltd was prosecuted by its Legal Services Team. At Thames Magistrates’ Court on 8 September 2026, company director Ashrafi Ashrafi pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to selling a nicotine inhaling device to a person under 18. The company was fined £800 and ordered to pay £1,995 in prosecution costs and a £320 victim surcharge. The seller, Md Al Amin, had previously pleaded guilty on 24 March 2026 and was fined £146, with £100 costs and a £58 victim surcharge.

The case sits against a tightening national age-sale framework. Current government guidance on selling vaping and nicotine products says that from 29 October 2026 it will be an offence across the UK to sell any vaping product or nicotine product to anyone under 18. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, this expands the previous restriction, which applied only to nicotine vaping products. Scotland already applied age restrictions to nicotine and non-nicotine vapes.

For adult smokers and adult vapers, enforcement cases are a reminder that legal access and youth protection are separate issues. NHS guidance says vaping is less harmful than smoking for adults who switch completely, but it also stresses that vaping is not risk-free and that children and non-smokers should not vape.