The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A Sutton Bridge shop is facing a review of its licence after a man whose work visa had expired seven years ago served 15-year-olds alcohol.
City Stores in Bridge Road, Sutton Bridge will go before South Holland District Council’s Licencing Panel next week following a sting operation by Lincolnshire Police.
The licence for the shop has been held by Arumugam Sarankan since February.
The report by the police to the council states that on August 24, two 15-year-old ‘test purchaser’s bought a bottle of pink Hooch of four per cent alcohol.
They were asked for ID, but were sold the drink anyway when they told the server they’d left them at home.
Police and Trading Standards then entered and found that the person working in the shop was Sri Lankan whose right to work visa expired in 2014.
The documents state he told officers he estimated he worked 50 hours weeks and was a relation to the premises licence holder.
After CCTV showed he’d been working in the shop for three weeks “he was arrested and transported to custody for immigration,” the police report states.
A number of other issues were identified with the store which has previously had conditions set against it, Lincolnshire Police say.
Issues included no evidence of staff training, incident and refusal logs being kept or of age verifications being made.
In the report Chris Haward, the chief constable said: “Lincolnshire Police have obtained evidence which indicates that the management of these premises has been operating it in such a manner that amounts to criminal activity and thus undermines the licencing objectives of the prevention of crime and disorder and protection of children from harm.
“The premises sold alcohol to two 15-year-old test purchaser volunteers.
“The premises was found to have employed an illegal worker, someone who was in the country illegally and has therefore not been granted the right to work.
“The premises was also found to be in breach of conditions namely no personal licence holder authorisation, no incident and refusals log, no age verification policy, staff not aware of responsibilities regarding alcohol sales, no staff training, CCTV not conforming to specification of Lincolnshire Police, DPS spending majority of time in other locations, in the absence of DPS no personal licence holder was present, not to trade unless at least two trained members of staff working, and not operating challenge 25.”
