Manchester shop stripped of alcohol licence after illegal tobacco haul

A shop in Levenshulme, Manchester has been stripped of its alcohol licence after several stashes of illegal cigarettes and tobacco were found at the premises.

RS Grocers had been trading under the name California Wines on St Oswald’s Road when trading standards officers raided the shop in January and March 2020.

A total of 1,820 illicit cigarettes were recovered – 1,580 of which were counterfeit – along with 1kg of tobacco which carried no health warnings on its packaging.

Concerns were raised about the safety of the premises after electrical bare wires – including live wires – were found protruding from the walls.

Manchester council had been asked to review the convenience store’s premises licence after it emerged that it had been selling alcohol without permission as the owner was out of the country.

The licence given to Amer Saleem, who was also the designated premises supervisor (DPS), permitted the sale of alcohol from 8am to 11pm seven days a week.

But the council’s licensing subcommittee voted to revoke the licence after hearing concerns raised by the trading standards and licensing teams at a hearing on Monday.

Trading standards’ Louise Carter told councillors: “Various attempts have been made to contact the licence holder and the owner has had ample opportunity to engage with us regarding the illicit tobacco that has been found on two occasions.

“If he had been in contact with us and had engaged with us, we would have looked at a review of the licence rather than a revocation.”

Having not heard from Saleem in almost a year, another enforcement visit was carried out in March this year where more illicit tobacco was found at the premises.

The owner of RS Grocers told officers that Saleem had told him that an application had been made to designate him as the new DPS, though the council says they have no records of such an application being made.

This prompted the council to ask the new owner to stop selling alcohol as he was not authorised to do so.

Saleem contacted licensing officers in May and told them that he had given up the business last October and had expected Manchester council to have cancelled his licence.

Carter said: “Given that there was a further visit this year and illegal activity is continuing, we feel that the licence has to be taken away.”

David Horbury, licensing and out of hours compliance officer at Manchester council, adding: “If the DPs had kept in contact with trading standards, and had been responsible in relation to the licence’s alcohol terms. I don’t think we would be sitting here today.”

There were no representatives from RS Grocers, or Saleem, present at the hearing.