Clockwork orange: Councillor’s tangerine purchase thwarted by ‘misunderstanding’ over £1 coin

Tangerine dream: Cllr Michael Desmond’s legal tender was refused.

Cllr Michael Desmond was seeing orange after his attempt to buy a pack of tangerines was held up by a “misunderstanding” over a £1 coin.

The former Speaker of Hackney popped in to Sainsbury’s at 279 Mare Street on Sunday to pick up a healthy lunchtime snack, but his “old pound coin” was rejected by a self-service machine.

Desmond took his tangerines to a shop assistant, who told him the store would not accept the coin, even after the councillor’s protests that it was still “legal tender”.

The Royal Mint’s deadline for the official switchover to the new twelve-sided pound coins was at midnight on Sunday.

Some shops, as well as banks and building societies, have given customers extra time to use up their old coins following reports this week that there are still 450 million of them in circulation.

Desmond told the Citizen: “I don’t want to kick up too big a fuss – it is only a pound after all – but it is a matter of principle. The coins were legal tender until midnight – it is a breach of contract and consumer law for a store such as Sainsbury’s to refuse to accept them.”

The Hackney Downs ward councillor said he would be making a complaint to Sainsbury’s head office and hopes the supermarket will “treat its consumers rather better in future”.

A spokesperson for the retail giant said: “Customers were able to use the old £1 until stores closed on Sunday. We’re sorry for this misunderstanding.”

Cllr Desmond eventually bought his tangerines after digging out a £2 coin.