A Birmingham convenience store lost its licence after illegal firecrackers and cigarettes were found, following a complaint of underage sale of electronic cigarettes.
According to local reports, a Trading Standards Enforcement Officer, who visited Maral Mini-Market in Soho Hill, found the shop in a state of “considerable disorder with cans of beer haphazardly strewn all over the floor”.
After returning to the shop with a West Midlands Police officer, a member of staff was caught trying to hide a bag of illegal cigarettes under one of the aisles, reports said. A further search of the shop found a pack of “particularly large rockets” that the owner was not licensed to sell.
“In all the years I’ve been doing this job this is by far one of the worst premises I’ve been in. None of the tobacco we found was in the correct packaging, none of it had mandatory health warnings on and it is never intended to be sold within the UK,” reports quoted the Trading officer as saying.
The owner, Sirwan Rashid, said he had handed over control of the shop to another person, reports said.
West Midlands police stated that the premises licence holder would appear to have nothing to do with the premises and the manager has never been there when the premises have been visited.
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