MARION – A liquor store was fined $1,000 and suspended from selling tobacco for one day by the Marion Board of Health at a Jan. 11 meeting after it failed a compliance check for selling tobacco to an underaged customer in December.

Lighthouse Liquors sold a pack of cigarettes to a person under 21 on Wednesday, Dec. 27 as part of a state inspection, according to Megan DaCosta, public health program manager for tobacco. The clerk in the store did not ask for age or identification, DaCosta said.

The penalties issued to Lighthouse Liquor owners Nancy and Paul Dube came just days after 14 businesses in Middleboro each received $1,000 fines from the Middleboro Select Board after failing tobacco compliance checks. Those checks also occurred in December.

“I do understand how difficult it can be in a store setting where you look at somebody, you think they're older and they're not,” said Marion Board of Health vice-chair John Howard. “However, nicotine in any use, any amount, as you know is dangerous to health, and we worry about the health of the folks in Marion.”

Nancy Dube said she has lived in Marion and worked at Lighthouse Liquors for 14 years and never knowingly sold tobacco to a minor.

“I’m very, very careful about that,” she said.

The Dec. 27 compliance check was the first violation for the store from an inspection conducted at a local level, according to DaCosta. However, in the last two years Lighthouse Liquors had failed two tobacco sales inspections conducted by the FDA, one of which resulted in a warning and another which resulted in a monetary penalty of $638, according to FDA data. 

Marion Board of Health chair Edward Hoffer said the board had no leeway under state law regarding the monetary fine of $1,000 for a first violation. Unlike FDA inspections, Massachusetts guidelines do not offer a warning to businesses that fail compliance checks for the first time, according to DaCosta.

“It's not that we're picking on you,” Hoffer said.

The board agreed on a one-day suspension of tobacco sales at Lighthouse Liquors, having been able to opt for up to three days, Hoffer said, and moved for the fine to be paid over a period of six months.