Stockton shop owner’s booze bid dashed over neighbourhood troubles

A shop owner’s hopes of selling booze from his corner shop have been dashed after fears it would add to the area’s troubles.

Stockton Council’s licensing committee refused to grant Muhammed Adnan Rabani a licence to sell alcohol from his store on Yarm Lane following a hearing.

Cleveland Police raised worries over street drinking, cases of violence, and crimes committed at the former Usman Food Store in its objection to the bid.

But Rabani argued his business would be hit badly by a refusal – and anyone wanting booze could go to any number of nearby stores to buy it, including Aldi over the road.

Councillors were told there had been 57 alcohol-related crimes and 29 booze-related anti-social behaviour problems within 200m of the shop in the past year.

Sgt Paul Higgins, from the force’s licensing unit, said: “What we’ve got here is an area suffering from significant alcohol related crime and anti-social behaviour, lots of deprivation, street drinkers, street prostitution – and we’ve got a store exploited by criminals in the past by contactless payments.

“The question the committee needs to answer is: are they confident the operator and his staff will be able to stand up to these challenges?”

The committee’s verdict was sent out on 2 June and raised concerns about the lack of documentary evidence Rabani had produced to counter Cleveland Police’s misgivings.

The report added: “For example, Mr Rabani had not produced any documentation to the committee to show that he would operate a good due diligence system at the premise.

“The committee would normally expect to see examples of training that would be given to his staff or examples of refusal registers.

“This was especially relevant given that the premise was going to be operating in a challenging area.”

The shop owner told last week’s panel he was a “proud taxpayer” – and that all contactless payments had been stopped at the store following cases of criminals using stolen bank cards.

In the wake of the refusal, Rabani told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was disappointed – and now thinking about the next steps he would take.

He said: “There is so much demand in my area so it’s not fair.

“They can go over the road to get alcohol – lots of people have been coming in and asking why I can’t sell it.

“I’ve been trying my best – it would have improved my business by 40 to 50%.

“I honestly don’t feel I have problems with people in the Yarm Lane area – I’m friendly with people, work in the area and everyone knows me.”

Rabani will have 21 days to decide whether he wants to appeal against the decision through the courts.