Herbie's Grocery store has been fined $500 in territorial court after one of its cashiers was caught selling cigarettes to minors.

Judge John Faulkner ruled that the previous store owner, Mary Balsam, failed to prove she had taken reasonable steps to prevent the sale of tobacco products to underaged people.

The 'evidence falls short of proving due diligence,' the ruling said.

Faulkner also ordered a forfeiture of cigarettes from the store, located on Wilson Drive in the Granger subdivision.

The events that spurred the case began last September. Heelah Woo, a tobacco enforcement officer for Health Canada, was carrying out compliance checks in the territory.

This involves driving to various tobacco retailers throughout the Yukon and sending an underaged person into the store.

The 'test shopper' is usually someone 15 to 16 years of age who is paid $10 per hour to go into stores and ask for cigarettes.

Woo said in court the person must buy the cigarettes without trickery or lying. For example, the teen would enter the store without I.D.

Last September, a youth working for Health Canada was successful in buying cigarettes from Herbie's.

After a first failed check, the retailer receives a letter from Health Canada stating they were caught selling cigarettes to minors in a public area, said Woo.

It also includes a list of suggestions, she said, on how to remind employees to ask for I.D.

'The policy is to visit retailers two times per year,' Woo said.

Approximately 80 to 100 checks are performed throughout the territory every year.

Herbie's Grocery has been checked four times. It has failed the check twice, she told the court.

Woo was in the Yukon performing compliance checks again in April 2005.

Last Apr. 6, at around 3:15 p.m., she sent a 15-year-old into the store to try to buy cigarettes.

This specific test shopper was out on his fourth round of checks with Woo, so she went over the rules briefly, then sent him into the store with nothing more than $20 to buy the cigarettes.

'I told him to go at it,' she told the court.

When the youth emerged a few minutes later, he had a package of Number 7 cigarettes.

Woo went back into the store to inform the clerk Herbie's Grocery had failed the test a second time and the government would proceed with prosecution in court.

That is standard procedure for tobacco infractions, according to Woo.

In June, the clerk, Sahra Liedtke, pleaded guilty to selling tobacco products to a minor. She was fined $200.

Crown prosecutor Susan Duncan questioned Liedtke on what kinds of training she had received with regard to selling tobacco products.

Liedtke said she was told to always ask for I.D.

Balsam, who owned the store at the time, represented herself in court. She said she also wrote a message on the staff board that said, 'Ask for I.D. before selling cigarettes.'

The message was up regularly on an intermittent basis on the white board outside the staff room, she said.

Balsam estimated the message was up for about two weeks per month.

She said she had discussions with staff about the importance of not selling tobacco products to underaged people, stressing the legal implications for both the business and the individual employee.

'I believe that Herbie's Grocery did the best that it could,' Balsam said. 'There's always room for improvement in everything we do involving preventing the sale of tobacco to minors.'

While Herbie's had failed two of four checks, Balsam said the store's past practices have shown the integrity of the business in not selling tobacco to underaged people.

Duncan disagreed, however, that Herbie's Grocery had taken sufficient steps to curb the illegal sale of tobacco products to minors.

Staff did not receive adequate training nor reminders, she said. The message on the white board was 'meaningless' because it was too broad and gave no specific guidelines for when to ask for I.D.

Faulkner ruled that Herbie's Grocery was in fact at fault and did not prove that it had taken reasonable steps.

The charge falls under the federal Tobacco Act, which prohibits the sale of tobacco products to people under 18 years of age.

Herbie's Grocery changed hands on Aug. 1. It is now owned by Ray McLennan and will soon be called Mr. Video Gas-n-Go.

McLennan has received a new tobacco licence for the location.

'For us, we're a new tobacco licence so we get a fresh start,' he said in an interview this morning.

All of his employees are trained in the sale of tobacco products and have to sign an employment agreement stating they have been trained and understand they cannot sell tobacco to people under 18.

'Our company policy is no I.D., no sale,' he said. 'It's one of those things that I stress to my staff all the time, that it's not a joke. You know, it is a federal offence... And I constantly hound.

'I would sooner lose the sale than incur a fine.'