Islington Council has criticised the leniency of a £500 fine given to a convenience store retailer who sold an underaged boy two knives which he then used to stab a man seven times just minutes later.

In a prosecution led by Islington Council Trading Standards, Salman Capti was found guilty of selling the knives to a 17-year-old at his City Supermarket in Goswell Road, and of breaching his licence conditions by having inadequate CCTV at the hearing on June 9 2014.

The CCTV system, in this case, was supposed to enable frontal identification of every person entering the premises.

Magistrates ordered Salman to pay a £500 fine for the knife offence, a £100 fine for the CCTV offence as well as a £50 victim surcharge.

City Supermarket (UK) Ltd, the company which owns City Supermarket on Goswell Road, was also convicted of the knife offence and fined £750 and £50 victim surcharge. It also had to pay £5,000 costs.

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

Cllr Paul Convery, Islington Council’s executive member for community safety, said: “I am disappointed at the extraordinary leniency of the fine in such a serious case. There is an epidemic of knife-related crime in London, which has led to many deaths and injuries. 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.”

The council is now considering an appeal against the sentence.

The teenager who committed the knife crime was sentenced to five years youth detention. The victim survived, but suffered serious injuries.

Of 105 test purchases carried out in the last five years, 30 stores in Islington were willing to sell knives to underage people, Islington Council said.