Tesco refuses to sell Liam Whelan, 16, teaspoons pack

A 16-year-old boy was told he was too young to buy a pack of teaspoons by a supermarket in Lancashire.

Liam Whelan was sent by his stepmother to their local Tesco in Haslingden to buy replacements for the spoons he keeps losing.

But staff refused to sell the 57p pack of teaspoons to Liam, from Deardengate, because he was not 18.

His stepmother Yvette Whelan said the decision was "daft". Tesco apologised for staff not using their judgement.

Mrs Whelan said she sent Liam out to buy the spoons because he and his brother, Josh, keep losing them.

She admitted she thought he was lying about the incident at first and he had not been to the store.

"Knives, forks I can understand but teaspoons? No," she said.

"There's just no common sense."

Mrs Whelan said Liam was "really embarrassed" by being sent home empty-handed.

A Tesco spokesperson said: "We do include a till prompt for proof of age on our self-service tills for some items.

"We ask our colleagues to use their judgment as to whether this should be applied.

"In this instance, this was not followed and we apologise to our customer for any inconvenience caused."