A Singapore 7-Eleven store has had its tobacco retail licence suspended for selling tobacco products to minors.
Two other shops have also been caught by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) for the same offence.
Under the suspension, 7-Eleven at 523 Bukit Batok St is prohibited from selling tobacco products for six months. Employees at the three stores failed to make age checks and were caught by HSA’s ground surveillance team.
It is the second time a 7-Eleven store has been caught in less than six months. In September, the tobacco retail licence at the 7-Eleven retail store at Cineleisure Orchard was permanently revoked as it had committed the same offence for the second time. It was first suspended for a six months in 2011 for selling tobacco products to minors under the age of 18.
In the case of the Bukit Batok St store and Blu Jaz, as it was a first-time offence, their licences were only suspended. But Bedok Goodwill Store had its licence to sell tobacco products revoked because of a previous offence that invoked a six-month suspension in 2012. In the latest incident, it sold tobacco products to minors who were all in school uniform in two separate incidents on the same day. The seller had also sold the cigarettes at a higher rate than the retail price.
It is also an offence in Singapore for people to buy tobacco products for anyone 18 years or younger.
