Peterborough shop’s licence suspended for four weeks after selling super strength beers

Peterborough City Council’s licensing team and Cambridgeshire Constabulary visited Uni Express (Polish Shop Ltd) on St John’s Street on May 1 and found three breaches.

These included the sale of super-strength beer, lagers, ciders, perry’s or spirits (mixtures of 6% ABV (alcohol by volume)) as well as the sale of miniature spirits, or individual vessels/containers of beers/larger/cider/perry’s.

The shop was also informed that all sealed containers of alcoholic drinks offered for sale for consumption off the premises must be clearly labelled or marked with the name and postcode of the premises.

On May, 14, Polish Shop Ltd, which holds the licence, emailed the council to say that the breaches had been resolved, however, an unannounced visit the following day found alcohol above 6% still on display and labels not attached to alcohol being sold.

Despite further assurances over compliance, a further unannounced inspection on May 22 found three alcoholic products above 6% for sale.

In an application for the review of the shop’s premises licence, PC Paul Hawkins said the shop’s licence holder was “dishonest in their communications” and continued to breach the conditions of the licence, which he described as “wholly unacceptable and disrespectful”.

At a Peterborough City Council licensing sub-committee meeting on Friday, July 18, it was heard how the husband of the director of Polish Shop Ltd, Mohammed Akbari, shared responsibility for the store.

He asked the sub-committee to consider the fact that he had run multiple stores in Peterborough for over a decade with no issues, a claim that the authority’s licensing regulatory officer Darren Dolby backed up.

He also claimed that the licensing conditions for each of his shops were the responsibility of each shop’s premises supervisor, but admitted he should have paid more attention.

Mr Akbari apologised for the breaches and said: “I have failed myself, I have failed you guys, I have failed society.

“I have put my trust in somebody else which I shouldn’t have.”

Robert Sutherland, a solicitor representing the store, confirmed that all stock in breach of the conditions was no longer on the premises and asked the sub-committee members to consider a short suspension of two or three weeks.

Chair of the licensing sub-committee, Cllr Steve Allen, said the shop’s licence would be suspended for four weeks, coming into force 21 days after the decision to allow time for an appeal.

He said: “There were good reasons why alcohol licences had conditions attached. Responsible licensees should be aware that there were consequences if the licensing laws had not been adhered to.

“The sub-committee was disappointed that it had taken three visits to ensure compliance with the licensing conditions. There was obviously a cost to the local taxpayers when officers need to make multiple visits to licensed premises to ensure compliance.

“The sub-committee noted the apologies made by Mr Akbari and that the business was currently compliant. The sub-committee took the view that revoking the licence was not appropriate in this instance.”