Council successfully prosecutes three local shopkeepers for trading standards offences

The cases were all held at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 1 April 2026. The first case involved the selling of a vape to an underage volunteer who was carrying out a supervised test purchasing exercise at the Babs Food & Wine shop in Aylesbury. Mrs Suthananthy Pathmaseelan, whose husband owns the shop, admitted to the offence. Having been prosecuted previously for the same offence, Mrs Pathmaseelan had undertaken additional training and did ask the volunteer’s age, but she did not request to see any identification to prove they were old enough to purchase the item.

In sentencing, magistrates imposed a fine of £400, reduced from £600 to reflect the early guilty plea. They also imposed the mandatory victim’s surcharge of £160 and made an order of £700 contribution towards the prosecution costs.

In the second case, Adeel Hussain, owner of Noshani in Desborough Road, High Wycombe, was prosecuted for a number of offences relating to illegal cigarettes. Trading Standards officers discovered a quantity of illegal cigarettes when they visited the shop. At first Mr Hussain claimed they were for personal use but these claims were refuted by the fact that items were sold to test purchasers on three separate occasions.

In court Mr Hussain pleaded guilty to all the charges. He was fined £403, reduced from £605 for his early guilty plea. A statutory victims’ surcharge of £161 was imposed with an order for a contribution of £1,500 towards prosecution costs. All of the seized items have been forfeited by court order.

The final case involved the New Hub Off Licence, located at 25A High Street, Chesham. Both the company running the shop, New Hub Limited, and its director, Karandeep Singh Khurana, were prosecuted for six offences resulting from a visit to the shop on 30 January 2025 where officers found a number of infringing items being offered for sale. These including oversized vapes, counterfeit vodka and vapes that were missing the statutory health warning and the mandatory information leaflet.

Mr Khurana had previously accepted a formal caution from Hammersmith & Fulham Trading Standards in May 2023 for possessing oversized vapes. The court was told that the defendant had since sold the business and has decided to sell mainly household items in his other shop in Hammersmith.

Magistrates imposed a fine of £384, reduced from £576 for an early guilty plea. A victim surcharge of £154 was imposed and an order made for a contribution of £1,000 towards the prosecution costs. An order was made for the forfeiture of all items seized.

Mark Winn, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Regulatory Services said: “This is a great outcome for our Trading Standards team and sends a message to others who may think they can get away with selling illegal goods or selling items to those who are underage.

“The penalties imposed may seem relatively low. Fines are determined by the courts, not the council, so this is not something we have control over. The important thing is that we are seeing illegal, potentially dangerous goods which are a danger to public health taken out of circulation and we are preventing underage sales and ensuring that the people carrying out this illegal activity are brought to justice.”