The owner of a Bradford newsagent’s has been fined after a 15-year-old girl was sold cigarettes without her age being questioned.

Mohammed Qayyam, 40, of Squire Green, Great Horton, will have to pay more than £1,000 after the successful prosecution by West Yorkshire Trading Standards at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

The case was heard in Qayyam’s absence and magistrates were told that on October 19, the girl went to Capital News in Duckworth Lane during a test purchase operation. She asked for a pack of ten Mayfair cigarettes and was sold them by a member of staff with “no questions asked” of her age.

Laura Botchway, prosecuting, said although Qayyam had not been the person selling the cigarettes, it took place in his store and so was his responsibility.