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Magistrates are facing unprecedented criticism for “extraordinary leniency” after handing out a £500 fine to a shopkeeper who sold a knife to a teenager that was used in a stabbing just minutes later.

Islington Council has said it is considering appealing the sentence, described by community safety chief Paul Convery as a “systemic failing of the local judiciary”.

The maximum penalty for selling a knife to a person under 18 is a £5,000 fine and six months in prison, and the fine for the licensing breach could have been as high as £20,000.

But on Tuesday, magistrates at Highbury Corner court ordered Salman Capti, licence holder of City Supermarket, in Goswell Road, Finsbury, to pay a £500 fine for selling knives to an under-age youth and a £100 fine for ­having inadequate CCTV in the shop, plus a £50 victim surcharge.

The sentencing comes after a spate of high-profile fatal and near-fatal stabbings involving teenagers in Islington – including one at Archway tube station on Wednesday – and amidst vows by police and Town Hall chiefs to do everything in their power to clamp down on a rise in youth violence. Three Islington teenagers have been killed by knives just this year. “I am disappointed at the extraordinary year. “I am disappointed at the extraordinary leniency of the fine in such a serious case,” Cllr Convery told the Tribune.

“There is an epidemic of knife-related crime in London, which has led to many deaths and injuries. We need all the cogs in the machine working together and we have been badly let down. A greater penalty in a case where the sale demonstrably resulted in a life-threatening attack could have impressed on other businesses their moral and legal duty to protect our young people.”

He added: “A lot of hard work involving police forensic officers and the council’s trading standards team was put into this prosecution. It is a big systemic failing by the local judiciary, and it is unusual. They are by and large very consistent and appear to talk to each other.”

A 17-year-old youth had entered the shop in June last year, when he bought two knives which had sharp, pointed 8cm blades. Within 10 minutes of the purchase the knives were used to stab a man seven times on the nearby Triangle estate. The victim survived but suffered serious injuries.

The teenager was identified, arrested and subsequently pleaded guilty to involvement in the stabbing and was sentenced to five years’ youth detention. He denied taking part in the attack, but admitted he had bought the knives at the shop.

Mr Capti, 26, of Bethnal Green, who had pleaded not guilty, was convicted of the two offences on June 9. The case was adjourned for sentencing because of “the very serious consequences that resulted from the sale”. Sentencing on Tuesday was carried out by a different bench of magistrates.

Cllr Convery added: “This was a sale of a potential murder weapon and it was used in a stabbing just minutes later. I really expected the sentence to reflect the severity of the offence and that the bench who found the shop guilty would be respected.

“The sentencing bench plainly did not pay much attention to what their colleagues had said about the conviction.

“At the time of conviction magistrates said it was a grave and serious offence and they expected that the sentence would reflect the gravity of the situation. But it appears the sentencing magistrates treated it like a minor regulatory infringement.”

City Supermarket (UK) Ltd, the company which owns City Supermarket, was fined £750 and handed a £50 victim surcharge and £5,000 costs.

The convictions were secured following legal action by the council.