Store loses licence after police cadet sting

​​An Ilford shop was stripped of its licence after being caught in a sting operation selling alcohol to underage teens.

Yagmur Supermarket, in Cranbrook Road, has twice sold bottles of alcopop WKD Blue to teenage police cadets acting as test purchasers.

On both occasions, in December 2020 and May 2021, female cashiers working for owner Cebo Avci, 45, and current licence holder Sidika Demir, 21, sold the drinks without asking for proof of age

A Redbridge Council licensing committee has now revoked the shop’s right permission to sell alcohol calling the breaches “serious and continuous”.

The committee’s decision, published last week, said: “This is a serious and blatant breach of the licensing objectives and poses a serious risk to children.

“Yagmur Supermarket and Mr Cebo Avci have undermined the licensing objectives in relation to the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, and the protection of children from harm.”

Other breaches of the shop’s licence included failing to keep CCTV for at least 30 days and lacking a shutter to cover alcoholic drinks when the licence ends at 12:30am.

Avci and Demir were also prosecuted in April this year in relation to the underage alcohol sales and illicit tobacco.

Both pleaded guilty at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court, Avci was ordered to pay a total of £1,104, Demir £1,200 and the company £1,423.

Avci has previously been prosecuted for selling illicit tobacco, in July 2019 he was fined £700 fine and ordered to pay costs of £700 for having 880 cigarettes at the shop.

In 2017 he received a caution after Redbridge’s trading standards team found 39 litres of vodka, 16 litres of whisky, 670 litres of wine, 300 cigarettes and 515 grams of loose tobacco – all of which were either counterfeit or non-duty paid.