Partridge v Crittenden

MR JUSTICE LLOYD JONES: This is an appeal by case stated against the decision of the Reading Magistrates on 2 December 2010, convicting the appellant of an offence contrary to section 7(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. That section, as amended, provides in relevant part:

"Any person who sells to a person under the age of eighteen years any tobacco or cigarette papers, whether for his own use or not, shall be liable, on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale."

The magistrates made the following findings of fact. On 26 February 2010 the respondent laid an information charging the appellant that on 19 September 2009 in the county of Berkshire he did sell to a person under 18 years of age tobacco contrary to the section 7(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, as amended. The appellant pleaded not guilty to that offence and the trial took place on 1 and 2 December 2010.

The magistrates found that the appellant failed to take such precautions or exercise the due diligence required to allow it a defence under section 7(1)(a) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.

"Were we entitled to conclude that the test purchase in this case constituted a sale to the purchaser for the purposes of section 7(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933?"