A Collier Row shopkeeper was fined after he was caught selling an eight-inch knife to two teenage girls in a council sting.

The 15 and 16-year-old girls bought the blade without being asked their age or for ID from Imran Asghar’s shop, Aladdin’s Cave, in Collier Row Road.

The girls were volunteering with Havering Council to help in an operation to test shops on underage sales, the council said in a release.

It is illegal to sell a knife to anyone under the age of 18.

Asghar was fined �1,065 and ordered to pay �878 in prosecution costs to the council, as well as a �15 victim surcharge, at Romford Magistrates’ Court on Friday September 14.

The court also heard that Asghar, who pleaded guilty, had no written training records for staff and was not operating a refusal log.

He was convicted of a similar offence in 2009.

Cllr Lesley Kelly, cabinet member for public protection, said: “This sends out a clear message to all shopkeepers in the borough that if you are caught selling knives to children you will be taken to court and fined.

“We want to keep our borough as safe as possible and shopkeepers must play a role in that by ensuring they do not sell items such as this to children. It is a simple case of requesting ID when you are in any doubt, and undertaking training with all staff so that everyone carries out the same checks. I hope this will be a lesson to this shopkeeper, and that we will not see him before the court again.”