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Press Release from Nirj Deva DL MEP |
20th
January 2008 |
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MEP
calls on EBay to close online shop that allows 13 year olds to buy
illegal “flick knives” |
Nirj Deva MEP has today (Sunday) called on the internet auction site
EBay to ban the sale of flick-knives online, following a dramatic
increase in street crime in the UK.
According to figures issued by the Home Office, up 60,000 people (or
160 people a day) were stabbed and injured in the period leading up
to March 2007, with 22,000 of these victims aged 10 to 25.
Whilst it is illegal for those under the age of sixteen to buy
knives, a five-second search for the word “flick knife” on
Ebay.co.uk offers visitors, without any form of background or age
check, the chance to buy a range of 3.75 inch Buck Protege serrated
flick-knives (photographs attached). All “flick knives” with a blade
of in excess of 3 inches are illegal under British law.
At the further click of a button, visitors are then invited to input
their credit or debit card details, including an option to pay for
the knives using a Maestro card, a card issued by most banks to
customers at the age of thirteen.
Whilst the internet auction site forbids the shipping of the item to
Denmark, Spain, Italy, Vietnam and Malaysia, British visitors are
told the deadly weapons can be shipped to the United Kingdom within
“24/48 hours of confirmation and verification of payment
information”.
Conservative MEP Nirj Deva said:
“I am shock to learn, following the dramatic increase in knife crime
in the UK over the past few years, that flick-knives are so easily
available online.
“All someone wanting to buy one of these deadly weapons need do is
log on to ebay.co.uk, input their debit card details and then await
delivery of a type of knife that is illegal under British law. There
is nothing to stop a thirteen year old with a Maestro card, issued
to most young account holders by High Street banks, from buying one
of these weapons.
“If we are to effectively tackle knife crime, it is crucial that we
get these weapons off our streets. Having these weapons available at
a click of a button is clearly unacceptable.
“I have written to Meg Whitman, the President and Chief Executive of
EBay, calling for her to immediately ban the sale of these weapon on
the website. I sincerely hope that she will act immediately to help
take these dangerous knives out of circulation”.
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