Hull c-store owner surrenders licence over illicit cigarette trade

A store owner in Hull has surrendered licence after police probe into illicit cigarette smuggling ring, just hours before application to revoke licence was due to be heard.

According to local reports, Sirwan Hassam, the owner of International Food Store in Spring Bank, came just hours before city councillors were due to consider a request by Humberside Police to revoke the store’s licence. The force’s application for a formal review followed concerns the store was part of an illicit cigarette smuggling ring in the city.

In evidence submitted to the council’s licensing section, police said their investigations into the business had been hampered by someone deliberately wiping the memory of the store’s CCTV system just hours before a scheduled visit to view footage. Officers probing the suspected smuggling ring were hoping to track the movements of a man found in the shop the day before carrying 23 packets of mixed cigarettes, Hull Live reported.

nstead, they discovered the system’s memory had been wiped and then switched back on again just a few hours before their arrival. Premises licences allow stores to sell alcohol but also require them to comply with a series of conditions including taking steps to prevent crime and disorder and to ensure they have a fully-operational CCTV system with a minimum of 31 days’ worth of recordings.

Surrendering the licence means it cannot now legally sell any alcohol to customers. A new licence would have to be granted to allow that to happen.

In a separate evidence statement, police licensing officer Gavin Davie said super-strength alcohol had also been on sale at the store in contravention of its licence conditions while staff claimed not to know how to work the CCTV system.

Hassan was the focus of another licensing review earlier this year in connection with a convenience store in Anlaby Road called Polonia. At the time, police recovered a large quantity of smuggled cigarettes in a rear storage area of the property and in his car parked outside.