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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Would you report it if you saw and adult buying cigarettes for school children?

51 replies

gilmoregirl · 26/04/2012 13:26

I live next door to a corner shop and on the same street as a school.

There is work being done on the building and I saw the guy from the builders talking to some of the school children as I walked past.

He had been into the shop to buy cigarettes for them - he handed them over telling the girls they were 15p short today.

should I report this to the shop / school / building company or just mind my own?

OP posts:
TheSinglePringleWillicopters · 26/04/2012 14:27

Him telling them they were 15p short doesn't mean anything.

Don't see the big deal. Back when I was younger it happened all the time without the man suddenly becoming a child predator

Olympia2012 · 26/04/2012 14:31

It inferrs he has bought them the cigarettes before!!

How do they arrange it.... Phone numbers exchanged?

cabbagesoup · 26/04/2012 14:34

Phew glad to hear others use to do this - the Spar was our hang out and many strangers would be happy to get us our booze / fags!! Grin

I wouldn't report just on that basis alone let the girl learn that smoking isn't all that great in there own time.

WMDinthekitchen · 26/04/2012 14:35

It is illegal to give cigarettes to a child knowing he/she is under the age of 16. If the builder was challenged he would doubtless say he thought they were over 16. I would report the matter to the building company - perhaps it has a website you could use or you could phone the office and report it anonymously if you don't want to be identified. If the culprit is the owner of the company no matter, he will realise he has been rumbled and, hopefully, stop. You could say that if you see it happen again you will report him to the police.

knowitallstrikesagain · 26/04/2012 14:36

I used to ask strangers to buy me fags when I was 14/15 and they sometimes did. I can see that if there is a man on a building project who is based there and has done it once they would ask him again. Handy arrangement.

Even if a man had bought me cigs on several occasions because we happened to use the shop at the same time, I would never have thought he was after favours for it.

There does not always have to 'be something in it for the man', maybe he remembers strangers doing this for him when he was a teen. Happy days.

YABU

Nagoo · 26/04/2012 14:38

I don't like smoking, and I'd hoick my judging pants, but I wouldn't say anything. I really don't think that anyone I could possibly report it to would give the tiniest shit TBH.

hardboiledpossum · 26/04/2012 14:41

I remember asking adults to buy us alcohol when we were 13/14. Nearly always people said yes. There was never anything creepy about it when men did it and sometimes we would ask someone who we'd seen before and they did it again.

MissFaversham · 26/04/2012 14:43

Don't think there's anything creepy going on. Kids ask all the time round here. I refuse and try to bite my lip sometimes a tut does escape as have a teenager myself but I did get them for them when I was younger.

Whilst irresponsible of the builder I wouldn't call it a reportable offence.

AmberLeaf · 26/04/2012 14:47

Whats to report?

No one is breaking any law.

AmberLeaf · 26/04/2012 14:54

PDF with the details of the laws concerning this

Yellowtip · 26/04/2012 15:39

WMD, that's wrong.

When I was fourteen I used to put cigarettes on my father's paper bill, which he paid very infrequently. It saved a lot of hassle and money.

michtaylor · 26/04/2012 16:05

It is illegal for an adult to buy cigs for a child under 18.

Shops must not sell to anyone if they even suspect they are for someone younger than 18.

The consequences can be up to £5000 fine and the sales assistant would lose their job and gain a criminal record if it was taken to court.

AmberLeaf · 26/04/2012 16:14

Did you see my link michtaylor?

Scope of the prohibition ? proxy purchases
The legislation is only concerned with the sale of tobacco products to someone under the age of 18 by a retailer (i.e. someone acting in the course of a business). If someone over the age of 18 has legally purchased cigarettes, what he then does with the cigarettes is up to him In practice, this means: 1 For the purposes of the legislation, tobacco products include cigarettes, cigars, loose rolling tobacco and rolling papers

it is not illegal for someone under the age of eighteen to smoke

it is not illegal for an eighteen year old to buy cigarettes on behalf of a sixteen year old; and

it is not illegal for an 18 year old adult to give cigarettes to a child (i.e. some one under the age of 18)
The legislation does not deal with proxy purchases and it is not illegal for a retailer to sell cigarettes to an 18 year old person even if he suspects that the cigarettes will be passed on to children

michtaylor · 26/04/2012 16:33

sorry...

My sister (who works in a shop) is sat beside me.

Her employer told her that it was the same for cigarettes as it is for alcohol.

I do know that the staff are worried all the time about selling to anyone under 18.

Birdsgottafly · 26/04/2012 16:37

Proxy purchasing is only illegal in Scotland (for cigs), the community police will usually advise shops to not do this, though and will have a word.

It isn't illegal to smoke underage.

Different if it was alcohol, or the builder was paying for them.

Massive over reaction to report him, but MN is very anti-smoking.

Birdsgottafly · 26/04/2012 16:38

Her employer told her that it was the same for cigarettes as it is for alcohol.

That will be company policy and not the law, the duty is on her, not the person purchasing them.

AmberLeaf · 26/04/2012 16:42

Im copying and pasting because I know sometimes PDFs are a pain to open!

Comparison with the sale of alcohol products
The situation is different for alcohol. Whilst the legal age for the purchase of alcohol is also 18 years, section 149 of the Licensing Act 2003 makes it an offence for a person to purchase or attempt to purchase alcohol for a child (i.e. someone under 18), other than a parent or legal guardian for supervised consumption in the home. However, this offence, known as ?proxy purchase' applies only to alcohol ? there is no similar offence for tobacco products

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 26/04/2012 17:11

having deleted long post I realised was probably overly rude myob :)

hairylemon · 26/04/2012 17:26

FFS so hes a peeedo because he buys some cigs for school kids? Some sort of arrangement? Of course there is - they give him money, he buys the cigs, thats the arrangement.

Yes OP report by all means, but I hope he doesnt get some sort of 'name' and loses his job/gets battered/ over buying a few cigs for kids that will get them anyway from somewhere else.

We used to ask anyone, male or female, to buy us cigs and beer at that age and most, male and female obliged. We also had 'regulars' that used to do it for us.

TheMonster · 26/04/2012 17:29

I hate it that adults buy them for kids. My friend (a teacher) buys them for her 15 year old daughter. It makes me sad.

bobbledunk · 26/04/2012 18:16

No, it's petty. Reserve tale telling for when it is something genuinely serious like violence or bullying.

Yellowtip · 26/04/2012 20:04

I bought them for my 17yo daughter Eeyore, even though I now hate the things. There are worse vices.

I love it when people make up offences.

wendythetrampwhowasborntorun · 26/04/2012 23:53

I have bought cigs for DC as a way of defusing smoking as rebellion - makes it very uncool to smoke if mum calls you "mummy's little toughie" when she hands them over - "one each, mind" - in front of all your mates. Grin

That said, I would report the builder to his employer: if he is spending his time ingratiating himself with school-kids, he is not doing his job. Building sites are inherenetly dangerous, and he poses a threat to his colleagues if not to the kids. Angry

Birdsgottafly · 27/04/2012 00:25

My son in law used to work on building sites, luckily he never saw my younger two, otherwise he might have been reported for talking to them Hmm

Builders are allowed friends/neighbours/family, just like everyone else.

I wave and have even been known to speak to my children's friend during work hours.

sashh · 27/04/2012 07:19

What happened to the 'single and 2 matches please'?

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