No apologies for absence were received.

No declarations of interest were made.

The Licensing Officer (1GBC) advised the panel that on Monday 27 January 2025, an application for review was received from Trading Standards for East West Food & Wine. The application was in relation to two of the licensing objectives: the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance. Details of the application from Trading Standards could be found in appendix B of the report pack.

The premises was licensed for off sales of alcohol on weekdays between 8:00am and 11:00pm, and on Sundays 8:00am to 10:30pm. On 24 February 2025, representation from licensing was received in relation to two of the licensing objectives: the prevention of crime and disorder and the protection of public safety.

Trading Standards were invited to make their representation, and raised the key points below:

·        Trading standards visited the premises in December 2024 following intelligence from Kent Police that vulnerable street drinkers were purchasing alcohol from the store. At this meeting, the Trading Standards Officer compared bottles of alcohol on the shelves and raised his suspicions.

·        A follow up visit was held in January 2025 where 172 bottles of smuggled alcohol were seized by Trading Standards after mistakes in the appearance of the label were identified. It was noted that on some of the Smirnoff Vodka products, the UK Duty Stamp featured the word whiskey, in two different spellings – in this instance, whiskey would not be written on a vodka product.

·        Mr Ponnuchamy Jeyarajaguru presented himself as the owner of the business and was extended family of the premises licence holder but had day-to-day involvement with the business.

·        The Principal Trading Standards Officer explained UK Duty Stamps to the panel.

·        Those exploiting the system smuggle cases of spirits intended for other markets and remove the existing label to replace it with a counterfeit that includes the UK Duty Stamp, giving the appearance that it was for the UK market. In these circumstances, the original product was genuine – only the rear label was counterfeit.

·        Boxes of alcohol were open and of poor quality – the Principal Trading Standards Officer noted that suppliers would have needed to open and remove the bottles of alcohol to replace the labels.

·        This was not the first occasion that the premises had been caught in the possession of smuggled goods, which led to a license review in 2015 and the two conditions to be placed on their licence.

·        Products on the shelves, such as grinders, pipes and little Ziplock bags, whilst not illegal, contributed to public nuisance.

·        No staff training records were available for inspection.

Given the existing conditions on the licence intended to prevent such incidents, it was felt that there were no meaningful conditions that would satisfy/address the concerns shared by Trading Standards. Therefore, they recommended a revocation of the premises licence.

Following questions from the Representative (Licensing Matters) for the premises licence holder, the Principal Trading Standards Officer explained that:

·        Reference to nuisance and street drinkers was made on page 17 of the report pack.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.