Two Northampton shops lose alcohol licence after illicit cigarettes bought from storerooms
Two shops on busy town centre streets will no longer be permitted to sell alcohol, after officers found a secret compartment in a toilet and illegal tobacco in the back of a storeroom.
Sams Mini Market, in Abington Square, and Istanbul Mega Market, in Gold Street, were both visited by Trading Standards and Northamptonshire Police officers in March and April this year to investigate the sale of illicit goods.
Police asked West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) to review both of the convenience stores’ licences on the grounds that they were unable to prevent crime and disorder and protect children from harm.
Police and Trading Standards originally visited Sams Mini Market to carry out test purchases, where 40 Lambert and Butler cigarettes were bought for £10 on each occasion and retrieved from a back door marked ‘staff’.
On a follow-up visit, officers seized 152 illegal disposable vapes, which were found below shelving in a room behind the counter.
A hide was also discovered in a bathroom at the back of the store. When pressed, a magnetised secret compartment located in a tiled section above the toilet opened, however there were no items located in it at the time.
Similarly, during an enforcement visit to Istanbul Mega Market officers observed an employee retrieving a packet of 20 cigarettes, which were bought for £5, from a rear room rather than from the shop’s public display.
During a second visit, 163 packets of illicit cigarettes and 400g of hand rolling tobacco were found in a black courier box located in a rear storeroom. Immigration checks were also conducted on a male worker and he was subsequently arrested and handed to immigration services.
Both shops were due to go a hearing in front of the WNC Alcohol and Gambling Licensing Sub-Committee last week to determine their future.
The panel ruled that the premises licence for Sams Mini Market, which included permissions to sell alcohol from 8am to midnight, seven days a week, should be revoked.
Licensing officers confirmed that since the review was called new management of the premises had been put in place, who said they had no intention to sell alcohol anymore. There was no representation from the named licence holder or Sams Mini Market present at the hearing.
Its alcohol licence had already been suspended due to non-payment of annual fees to the council, and police said this was evidence of the shop’s “propensity to not comply with the regulations”.
According to WNC, the licence holder for Istanbul Mega Market took the decision to surrender its premises licence prior to the WNC hearing taking place. It will no longer be able to sell alcohol as per its previous permissions between 7am and 1am everyday.