Peterborough shop loses licence after police find 'weapon' and stolen goods

A Peterborough off licence has lost its right to sell alcohol after police found an alleged weapon behind its counter and stolen goods in its store room.

UK PLUS EU, at 27 Broadway, was stripped of its licence at a Peterborough City Council (PCC) hearing this week.

PC Paul Hawkins held up the object police believe could be used as an adapted weapon at the hearing to show councillors.

Dier Fayak, the shop’s owner, denies that the object – a metal pole with tape around one end and string attached – is a weapon.

Speaking at the hearing, he said that it has never been used in the years it had been in the shop, which he described as the “safest place”, but didn’t explain what it was or why it was there.

PC Hawkins also showed councillors CCTV footage in which a man they say is a known shoplifter enters and leaves UK PLUS EU.

The man, who was not identified at the hearing, stole £60-worth of Galaxy chocolate bars from Poundland at Hereward Cross before cycling to the off licence in November last year, police say.

He then left UK PLUS EU with a “visibly lighter” bag and was arrested. In the process, he discarded £15 in bank notes, they add in a report.

In CCTV footage from inside the off licence, the shoplifter – who was later prosecuted – can be seen putting a bottle of water on the counter and “eating what appears to be a chocolate bar”, police say, but he is not seen paying for these items.

Mr Fayak told the hearing that he was unaware that the boxes of chocolate had been deposited in the shop and that he was under the impression he was simply giving a homeless person a free bottle of water.

He added that he has never been involved in crime in the two decades he has lived and worked in Peterborough.

Councillors assured Mr Fayak that he was not being tried for a crime and indeed neither he, nor licence holder Alan Amer – who was not at the premises during the time of the incident with the shoplifter – have been prosecuted in relation to it.

Chair of the licensing committee, Cllr Rylan Ray (Conservatives, Eye, Thorney and Newborough), said that PCC takes a “serious view” of purchasing and selling on stolen goods, which “undermines more honest shopkeepers”, and that it was “concerned” about the presence of the metal pole.

The shop has 21 days to submit an appeal to Peterborough magistrates court if its associates wish to do so.