A SOUTHAMPTON mum says she was branded a troublemaker after being refused the sale of PVA glue.

Eleven-year-old Olivia volunteered to go into The Range with her friend to buy the glue to take home for arts and crafts.

Her mother, 43-year-old Steph Sandy, waited in the car park of the site on Winchester Road in Southampton.

Olivia, formerly of Nursling Primary School, then came outside to her mum, who is also a childminder, and told her that she was denied the sale as she was under 18 and the glue was classed as a solvent.

However, after being asked if she was buying it for Olivia, Steph was also refused the sale.

The Range did not comment on the incident, however the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) said when making decisions about the sale of glue, or other solvents, the suspicion of misuse has to be considered in the refusal of the sale.

Steph and her children then bought the glue from a nearby supermarket without a problem.

An assistant cook at Bevois Town Primary School, Steph said she had bought the glue from the store before, and could not believe that she was being refused.

Steph, of Millbrook, said: “It’s not that they denied the sale to my children, I don’t mind that.

"It’s good that they will be challenging age.

"What I don’t understand is that I was then refused the sale.”

Steph, a mum of two, is married to Kevin Sandy, 39, a vehicle technician, and admitted that she considered sending her husband in to buy the glue to prove a point.

Olivia said she had been to the store to buy glue on a previous occasion and had been able to do so.

She said: “I was a bit annoyed as we were going to use it for crafts. My friend and I have been there before to buy it and it was fine.

"I was more shocked when my mum couldn’t buy it either.”

She has been a childminder in school holidays since 2009, and said that the staff told her they would recognise her in future as a ‘troublemaker’.

She added: “I told the staff that I wasn’t giving it to the children; that I would be using it with them.

"I wanted to see the manager and they said I was being a troublemaker.

"They said the store would know me as someone causing trouble. My husband said it was all utterly ridiculous.

“I’m a childminder, my daughter and her friend just wanted to go home and make some arts and crafts.

"I’ve got Ofsted certificates. I couldn’t believe the insinuation that I might be buying it for them to sniff.”

Steph then went to Sainsbury’s with Olivia and her son Toby, eight, to purchase the glue.

The CTSI said that while there wasn’t a ‘black and white’ law on the topic, it was down to the store themselves to make a decision on the sale, adding that the reason a sale could be refused is if staff had the suspicion that it was going to be used in an abusive manner.

The Range did not respond to requests for comment.