Jay Food and Wine accused of selling illicit tobacco, opening beyond its permitted hours, and selling a vape to a 14-year-old, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
A Dagenham off-licence applied for permission to sell alcohol later – only to be slapped with tough new conditions.
Jay Food and Wine in Broad Street wanted permission to sell drink as late as midnight each day. But police and licensing officers said it was already opening later than it was allowed – and had been selling illicit tobacco.
Barking and Dagenham Council licensing officers said the breaches were “extremely serious”.
They accused shop owners of “poor management, inadequate control measures and insufficient staff supervision and training”.
The shop is currently permitted to sell alcohol until 11pm Mondays to Saturdays and until 10:30pm on Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day.
The licence holder, Alagathurai Vijeyakanthan, applied for permission to change the permitted hours so that he could sell alcohol until midnight every day and open until 1am.
However, the Metropolitan Police Service and council licensing officers said the shop was already breaching its current conditions.
PC Owen Dunn said that when a plain clothes officer visited the shop last month they found it open at 1am, past its permitted opening hours, and was asked if they would like to buy vodka.
The officer said staff claimed to be unaware of the licensing conditions, could not produce a copy of the shop’s licence, and could not access its CCTV.
PC Dunn said: “Police suspect that staying open beyond permitted hours to sell alcohol is a financial greed decision, therefore potentially putting vulnerable people at risk in relation to the sale of alcohol.”
Council licensing officers reported similar findings during their own recent visit.
They also said that the shop had sold a vape to a 14-year-old test purchaser, and claimed that in the past year it had been caught selling illicit tobacco.
Vijeyakanthan presented his case to councillors at a licensing sub-committee on Thursday, 2nd July.
He said new staff had been trained to ask for ID, and he did not understand how illicit tobacco could have been found at the shop.
Vijeyakanthan added that he had applied for later hours to compete with a nearby Nisa convenience store and The Admiral Vernon pub.
He said: “The shop, Nisa, they already have late opening to twelve o’clock, they’ve got the licence from the council. And the pub also, they close at twelve o’clock.
“All the street are open after twelve o’clock, all of them open late.
Vijeyakanthan added: “I don’t want create any trouble, that’s why I paid nearly £2,000 to apply for one more hour.
“I need to follow the rules and the law, that’s why I applied.”
However, Vijeyakanthan couldn’t name the four licensing objectives – the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance and the protection of children from harm – when PC Dunn asked.
Nor could he correctly answer what his current licensed hours were.
Vijeyakanthan also said he couldn’t remember having signed up to the council’s responsible retailers scheme, designed to prevent the sale of age-restricted products to children.
Councillors on the sub-committee voted to refuse the extended hours.
However, they also added additional conditions to the licence, including that the shop should not be able to sell single cans and bottles. They added that Vijeyakanthan should find someone else to train staff.
The committee’s legal officer said: “The committee was not impressed with your understanding of the licensing objectives. They have concerns about your ability to deliver the training to staff.”
He warned that if Vijeyakanthan didn’t improve, he could face losing his licence altogether.
