Two Bendigo retailers caught selling cigarettes to minors will not have to pay fines, the City of Greater Bendigo has revealed.
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The municipality tested 12 businesses inside the city during its most recent round of tobacco purchase tests, which it conducts every six months on the behalf of the Victorian health department.
Two businesses, which have not been named, sold tobacco to people under the age of 18.
The previous round of testing found none of 16 targeted businesses breaking the law.
An individual caught selling tobacco products to a minor can be fined $621.84 and businesses can be penalised nearly $10,000.
But a city spokesperson said the two businesses were first-time offenders and would not pay a penalty this time.
Instead, the retailers were warned and will be visited by council staff offering education to owners and staff.
Planning and development acting director Susannah Milne reminded tobacco sellers about their legal obligations.
“The results demonstrate that while most retailers are asking customers for identification, which is a requirement when selling tobacco products to young people, some are forgetting rules that have been heavily publicised since the Tobacco Act was introduced nearly 30 years ago,” she said.
Speaking with the Bendigo Advertiser in July, Quit Victoria director Dr Sarah White said she wanted to see businesses obtain a licence to sell cigarettes which could be taken away if they were caught selling to under-18s.
“Year after year, we still have businesses seeing profits as more important than preventing kids from getting addicted to a lethal product,” she said.
“We know that the vast majority of smokers start before they are 18, so enforcing bans on sales to minors is absolutely critical in preventing new generations of smokers.”
The Bendigo test results coincide with new tobacco use data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that shows fewer young people were trying the potentially-deadly drug.
In 2014, 19.1% of secondary students had tried “a few puffs” of a cigarette, down four per cent from 2011.
Young people who did smoke were also taking up the habit six months later than in the past.
Bendigo is not the only central Victorian local government area where businesses have been caught selling cigarettes to minors.
Four of 50 businesses tested in the Mount Alexander shire earlier this year failed their test. None of them were issued financial penalties either.