By Daniel Esson, Local Democracy Reporter
A town centre store has been stripped of its licence to sell alcohol after repeatedly selling booze to local street drinkers and keeping a “pledges book”.
The management team behind Kings News and Wine in Gravesend admitted there was “no excuse for what had happened” after also being caught with illegal vapes for sale, and having an illegal employee.
Kent Police’s licensing team originally lodged a request for the revocation of the trader’s licence into Gravesham council in May this year after a string of licence violations and rocky interactions with officers.
At a meeting of the council’s licensing panel on 13 June, PC Dan Hunt of Kent Police told attendees: “Alcohol related antisocial behaviour, crime and disorder and street drinking have been evident within the town centre at Gravesend for some time.”
Large swathes of the town centre are covered by a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) which prohibits public drinking, including the corner of King Street and Queen Street where the Premier shop sits.
He stressed that “we have tried to work with the premises for some time and we’ve tried to work with Mr Pirakas when possible”.
Rajaratnam Pirakas was the designated premises supervisor (DPS), but not the owner of the business. The owner is his cousin, Perinpam Seralathan.
The first incident PC Hunt recalled was in April 2023, when police saw the newsagent serve a “very drunk” street drinker when they “should have been refused”.
Officers later requested CCTV – which under their licence should be retained for 31 days – but staff could not show more than four days worth of recordings or operate the system, which amounted to a “breach of the licence”.
The next day, PC Hunt added: “I witnessed a customer of a dishevelled appearance, he exited the premises carrying a can of cider – bear in mind this is 7.40am.”
The shop was not allowed to serve alcohol before 8am under its licence.
A member of staff then told PC Hunt: “he did not believe the customer to be a street drinker” but a “regular customer” and “of good character.”
“The member of staff showed me this pledges book, if that’s the right term,” PC Hunt continued.
“This pledges book showed me numerous pages of entries whereby this same customer has previously been provided alcohol on credit, where no on the spot payment was provided.
“Whilst I appreciate that the act of allowing credit is not illegal, and the premises can offer such a service at their own discretion if they so wish, I was shocked however that the premises were seemingly offering alcohol on credit to persons that are street drinking and the fact that this person seemingly always had alcohol would suggest that maybe he was alcohol dependent.”
Issues were also discussed over staff training on licensing.
On another occasion PC Hunt recalls he went into the shop and asked an employee if he was a personal licence holder to serve booze, only for the worker to show him his provisional driving licence.
When he quizzed Mr Pirakas in December last year about another incident where police watched the shop sell drink to a drunken woman, “it was suggested to us that this woman was not drunk, and merely walked in a way which made her appear drunk,” PC Hunt told the meeting.
On another occasion when they went into the shop to ask why officers had seen them serve another local street drinker, a member of staff provided false details, and then provided the same false details in an immigration raid.
“He was an overstayer with no permission to work in this country at all,” PC Hunt said, adding that he had been dealt with through the Home Office.
Brazenly, after the worker was arrested, PC Hunt explained: “Mr Pirakas claimed that the person in question did not work at the store – contrary to the two occasions where the police had actually witnessed him working with our own eyes and also immigration had seen him working at the time of his arrest.”
He stressed that “Kent Police are at a stage where we have no faith in the current premises management to affect the change needed”.
Both Mr Pirakas and Mr Seralathan were present at the meeting and their team proposed that instead of scrapping the licence for the shop, they instead transfer it to Mr Seralathan.
Mr Seralathan has been owner of the shop for some time but has not taken a direct role in running it, instead living in and running a newsagents in Lewisham.
Winston Brown, acting as a solicitor for the off-licence, said: “No one here is trying to in any way justify or challenge the evidence from the police”.
He asked the panel to “give these premises a chance, a second chance to get things in order,” arguing it would be “a completely different operation” if they did.
Alan Grant, a licensing consultant hired by the business, stressed to the councillors and officers present “The owner of the business is very aware that frankly he has zero confidence from the authorities.
“The owner clearly did not have his eye on the ball, he clearly was not responsible enough, he didn’t essentially have any oversight in the business.”
The police had suggested that the business stop selling cheap, high alcohol volume drinks and also stop selling single cans, and instead focus on four packs.
However, Mr Grant stressed that as a Premier franchise, the business has supply agreements which they have to observe, but they could look into renegotiating.
Mr Grant told the committee that “10-15% of his [Mr Seralathan’s] total revenue is coming from these street drinkers – and that is significant, there’s not a lot of margin in this business.”
Mr Seralathan wanted to take the licence on himself, and have Mr Grant’s assistance in running it for the next year to assuage the council and police’s fears about their licence adherence.
The business owner, who is an accountant by trade, also told the committee he was about £100,000 in debt.
Mr Grant stressed that his client had told him “He’s on the hook for six figures, clearly if the business is closed you’re talking about a bankruptcy permission for him”.
After around an hour’s deliberation, Cllr Baljit Hayre (Lab), chair of the panel, told the attendees it had reached its conclusion but “this was not an easy decision to make”.
“On this occasion it is unanimously the view that the licensing panel has determined this premises licence is to be revoked, and no condition can be imposed to ensure that the licensing objectives can be upheld,” he told the meeting.
The shop now cannot legally sell alcohol, but does not necessarily have to close.
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
