麻豆约拍

An investigation has found that half of the shops tested illegally sold vaping products to children.

X-Ray听secretly filmed two 16-year-olds as they went into 20 shops in Newport. They were sold age-restricted vaping products at 10 of them 鈥� including one shop which sold them illegally labelled fluids for 50p. The law says shops should not sell vapes to anyone under the age of 18.

Vaping is seen by many as a good alternative for adult smokers who want to quit cigarettes, but there are fears that it is becoming glamorous and increasingly attractive to children. On YouTube there are clips from young vapers performing spectacular tricks for millions of viewers.

And there are also questions over whether some of the flavours might appeal directly to children, although the industry disputes this.

X-Ray spoke to pupils at Ysgol Gymraeg Ystalafera near Neath to ask them whether they knew of children who vaped and just how young they were starting.听

One girl told the programme: 鈥淚'd say comprehensive age, probably eleven upwards.鈥�

Another pupil said: 鈥淚 believe that when they see the older pupils in the school experimenting with all these different types of vape and think it's how to fit in.鈥�

The different flavours were another aspect of their popularity with children.

One girl said: 鈥淭hey definitely appeal to a younger market, so much like alcopops were for younger children.鈥�

Another pupil said: 鈥淵ou see videos going viral of people vaping and making shapes out of the smoke and stuff like that and I think it just attracts a younger audience that thinks it鈥檚 cool.鈥�

Pupils also thought it was easy to buy vaping products, despite the age restriction. To test that, X-Ray sent sixteen-year-olds Rory and Anthony to Newport. They were rigged with secret cameras to see how many shops would illegally sell them vape.

The first shop they visited sold them vape liquid without any checks. Some shops did then ask for ID, but half of the 20 they visited sold vaping products labelled "highly addictive" and "over-eighteens only鈥� without checking their age.听One even sold illegal vape liquid with no proper labelling for just 50p.

X-Ray showed the footage to Professor Martin McKee, an expert from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He said: 鈥淲hat this demonstrates very clearly is that the rules are simply not being applied. Whenever the young person goes into the shop there is no attempt to challenge them about their age.

鈥淭he system is not working and because we are so concerned about the way in which young people are moving to e-cigarettes and subsequently on to smoking, we are facing a real risk of a nicotine addicted generation going into the future with all the health consequences that entails.鈥�

He added that some of the flavours used in vapes seemed to be aimed at children, a claim denied by the vaping industry.

Dan Marchant, from the UK Vaping Industry Association, said: 鈥淲e've got very clear guidelines that you do not allow members to market products to under-18 year olds. 鈥�

But he was shocked by the undercover footage.

He said: 鈥淯nscrupulous retailers are not doing the checks they are supposed to do and we need much better enforcement of the regulations to prevent it.鈥�

A parking company has suspended its self-ticketing operation 鈥� where people issue parking tickets for them using mobile phone apps 鈥� following an investigation by X-Ray.

The decision by UK Car Park Management Ltd (UKCPM) comes after X-Ray broadcast shocking CCTV footage two weeks ago of one of their self-ticketers in action in Cardiff.

Peter Ahmed, who runs a local car park, was filmed sneakily putting up a sign behind a parked car, and then photographing the car with the sign in the background 鈥� all so he could issue a 拢100听 parking charge before quickly taking the sign down again.

Kelly Venables only found out about it when she got the parking charge in the post. The ticket was issued on Curran Embankment, not far from the city centre.

She said: 鈥淚 can't believe that somebody could be quite so dishonest.鈥�

When X-Ray first contacted UKCPM and Peter Ahmed about the case, they both insisted it was an isolated incident.

The relevant trade association, the IPC, agreed.

Will Hurley, the IPC鈥檚 Chief Executive, said at the time: 鈥淲e haven't had this issue raised with us before, otherwise we would have dealt with it. So there's a good indication that it is a one off incident.鈥�

But X-Ray has now been contacted by a number of other people who鈥檝e had very similar experiences. 听

Last year Gary Mackenzie got three parking charges from UKCPM in the space of a week. He鈥檇 also parked on Curran Embankment after checking there were no signs to tell him he couldn鈥檛.

He said: 鈥淭en days later a letter dropped through the door with a parking charge with a clear photograph of the car with a sign in the background, one of UKCPM鈥檚 signs, which was never there.鈥�

He then took photos showing there were no signs where he鈥檇 parked to help his appeal.

Gary said: 鈥淚t just got rejected because the fact that they saw a sign on there on the picture.鈥澨�

It also seems you don鈥檛 even have to park on Curran Embankment to get a ticket for parking there.

Apprentice mechanic Ash Barbour parked next to Cardiff and Vale College in December. He took a photo of his car when he parked to show there were no signs there.

But days later he, too, received a parking charge notice in the post. On it there was a photo showing a no-parking sign by his car 鈥揺ven though he had his own almost identical photo showing there was no sign there when he parked.

His parking ticket also claimed he鈥檇 parked on Curran Embankment, even though he鈥檇 actually been parked a third of a mile away just off Dumballs Road.听 Despite all of this, UKCPM wouldn鈥檛 accept Ashley鈥檚 protests.

He said: 鈥淲ith the photos I鈥檝e taken to prove that there was no parking signs, you know you鈥檇 think that would be enough evidence, but as soon as it came back they wanted me to prove with video evidence that their operator was in the wrong.鈥�

It was only after he threatened legal action that UKCPM cancelled his parking charge.

X-Ray has seen at least three similar cases from last year, but the issues go back further than that. In 2017 Hannah Bishop received two parking charges after parking in her office car park on Curran Road 鈥� even though she had a permit.

She said: 鈥淚 was kind of confused as to why I was the only one who had received it when we all put permits in, we all have parked there and I鈥檇 worked there for about three years at that point.鈥�

The parking charge from UKCPM听 - and issued by Peter Ahmed 鈥� claimed she hadn鈥檛 actually parked outside her office, but at Curran Embankment.

Hannah said: 鈥淭he address of my workplace is Curran Road but they鈥檙e saying I was parked on Curran Embankment, which is a completely different area. They鈥檙e saying that I鈥檓 confused now. That I鈥檓 confused about where I was parking.鈥�

Hannah is still fighting UK Car Park Management in the courts to try to clear her name.

X-Ray put these additional cases to Peter Ahmed, UKCPM and the trade body, the IPC. 听Lawyers for Mr Ahmed said he was unable to respond because of a serious medical condition. But the IPC have taken action following X-Ray鈥檚 investigation.

They鈥檝e called all their self-ticketing members to a meeting to look at how to improve regulation, and they said that UKCPM have now stopped all their self-ticketing across the country until the IPC tells them they can continue. They also said that UKCPM are cancelling many of the outstanding parking tickets issued by Peter Ahmed.

Tim Shallcross, Head of Technical Policy, Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), criticised the use of self-ticketing within the parking industry.

听

He said: 鈥� Sadly, there are lots of companies advertising all over the internet, for you or me or anybody to become a self-ticketer. We simply apply, they probably send us a copy of the industry code of practice but nobody actually checks whether we鈥檝e read it or not.鈥�

听

He also suggested that there would be some self-ticketers who took advantage of the fact they received a proportion of the value of every ticket issued.

听

Mr Shallcross said: 听鈥淭here are bound to be people out there who are tempted to break the rules and do what they can to earn themselves a few quid extra by bumping up the number of tickets that they issue.鈥�