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Shopkeeper hands in 400 knives to prevent teenage stabbings
Rob Singh26.06.08
A shopkeeper appalled by teenage stabbings has handed £700 worth of lock knives to police.
Nadeem Nasir decided not to sell his stock of about 400 knives for fear of them getting into the wrong hands, so he approached police community support officers near his discount store, Bits And Bobs, and asked if they could dispose of them.
The married father-of-four said he made his decision after a boy who attended his daughter's school was stabbed. Fifteen-year-old Adam Regis was also knifed to death last March only minutes from the shop.
He said: "We wanted to stop selling knives but we had all this stock. We didn't want to put them in the bin or skip. I didn't want them to get into the hands of children. What's important to me is not the money but to save a life. I want to stop these murders."
Mr Nasir backed the Standard's Beat Knife Crime campaign. This year, 16 teenagers have been murdered in London, 11 of them stabbed to death.
A Met spokeswoman said it was not a criminal offence to sell lock knives and the move was "unprecedented". She added: "The entire stock of lock knives was taken away by police officers and will be safely disposed of."
Reader views (6)
I don’t get it, you can make a better pig-stick out of anything, it only takes what- 4 inches of something sharp.
- Dave, NA
He could have re-engineered (grind off the points) them to be used as electricians knives or yachtsmen's knives giving them to the cops was a waste. But his heart is in the right place for thinking about the effects of knife crime.
- Jim,Cardiff, Cardiff UK
I applaud this not "so-silly" gesture.
Why do people have to side with the thugs.
It is a start, however small. There is no need for penknives to be held by individuals other than for business or organised activities purposes.
Perhaps the state should register businesses with licences to supply these items and compensate those who surrender them.
Again, well done Nadeem Nadir.
- Alan, Swindon, UK
Well done to that man! If only all shopkeepers showed the same level of social awareness, we might not have such a huge problem with knife crime.
- Marcus Branner, Greenford, London
Without wanting to seem too cynical, this is just a cheap bit of advertising and as far as beating knife cream is merely a drop in the ocean. Though I applaud this guy for doing this it will not make any difference as there are thousands of other shops selling knives.
- Kane, Sittingbourne,Kent, UK
What a silly gesture. Why couldn't the shop keeper just take the knives back to his wholesaler?
- Paul Wolkus, London, UK
