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Ealing Council revokes alcohol licence from Southall food shop selling illicit wine

A Southall shopkeeper has had his alcohol licence revoked after trading standards officers from Ealing Council discovered bottles of Marks and Spencer prosecco and Tesco wine on the shelves of Sapna Express in The Green with labels taken off the supermarket alcohol.

As well as the alcohol, erectile dysfunction pills, counterfeit cigarettes and over 2kg of Indian tobacco were discovered.

Trading officers searched the shop twice this year.

When they visited the shop on January 25 2022 they found prosecco priced at £12.99 but when they took a closer look at the bottles they saw the rear label Marks & Spencer branding had been trimmed and removed. Officers seized 22 bottles of the illicit prosecco.

A trading officer told Ealing Council: “The shop worker was asked to contact the owner and ask him to attend the shop. He telephoned him and when he got through he said in Punjabi: ‘You need to attend shop, we have been captured.’ This was translated by one of the police officers present.”

He added on their next visit: “On July 20, 2022, Officer Gohery and myself attended the premises at 5.30pm with police officers from the Southall ward team as part of an operation targeting street drinking and premises that were believed to be purchasing stolen alcohol. While inspecting the alcohol behind the counter, I noticed a large quantity of wine spread around the display shelves that are sold in Tesco’s. it was not priced and when the bottles were removed from the shelves it was discovered that the security labels were still attached to the bottles. On the floor behind the counter was a large cardboard box that contained another 22 bottles of various wines some of which still had the security labels attached.”

As well as the wine there was also a quantity of erectile dysfunction pills and tobacco.

The shopkeeper, Manmun Babar, claimed he was not aware of what was going on as he had rented out the the shop but Ealing Council said he would have known what was going on.

Ealing Licensing chair Anthony Kelly said: “Mr Babar remained in control of the license at all material times – as premises license holder and designated supervisor. While he had stated he handed over the running of the shop he retained responsibility for it and hadn’t taken any steps to make sure it was being run properly. Mr Babar was made aware and had knowledge of the breaches that led to the review.”

View Licensing Sub-Committee Hearing – Application to the Review the Premises Licence of Sapna Express

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