Wandsworth shop has premises licence revoked

A South London shop that allegedly sold booze and vapes to underage kids has lost its licence. One mum claimed her thirteen-year-old daughter had been sold two vapes from Worldwide Superstore & Off Licence in Tooting while in school uniform.

Wandsworth Council Trading Standards received four complaints about the shop on Mitcham Road since December 2021 and one intelligence report alleging the sale of age-restricted products such as booze and vapes to underage kids, including when in school uniform, according to a council report.

The report said: "Trading Standards carried out observations of the premises that indicated illegal sales may be taking place. Subsequently four test purchases were made, resulting in two sales to individuals aged under 18. One sale was of a vape, the second was of alcohol." Two of the test purchases did not result in underage sales.

One mum claimed to the council: "Earlier this year my daughter (13 years old) was sold two vape sticks, at different times in the same week whilst in school uniform. No ID was asked of her."

John Hillarby, chief trading standards officer at the council, said officers had seen young people entering in pairs and leaving with what was suspected to be bottled and canned alcoholic drinks, but they "couldn't actually see inside those bags".

He told the council's licensing committee on January 25 that Trading Standards had visited with a licensing officer and several "licence conditions were found not to be complied with". He said the business could not provide CCTV footage of the failed test purchases or staff training records and there was no refusals book in operation.

He said: "We feel that this demonstrates a fundamental failure and lack of responsibility by the business to observe the licence conditions. A previous visit in 2021 found illegal tobacco was being stocked on the premises."

Shop manager Anu Singh Sachdeva, representing the licence holder, said there was not enough evidence provided with claim the shop had sold vapes to a 13-year-old girl. Mr Sachdeva, who manages the business on behalf of his dad, said another complaint only referred to a shop in Tooting and there are many that sell alcohol and vapes locally.

He said the shop had passed other test purchases, adding: "I was sent a list of all the test purchases and I can see that I had a lot of test purchases that were passed as well, which a lot of them weren't mentioned."

Mr Sachdeva said the shop sells many products including soft drinks which could have been in the bags officers saw kids carrying. He said he has refused to sell booze to underage kids many times but they sometimes stand outside the shop and ask passersby to buy booze for them, adding that big groups of kids "rush into the shop… pick up stuff and run out" regularly – including stealing smoking products.

He said he could not afford to repair the CCTV as he was paying off a £6,000 council fine for a front extension built without planning permission and rent for the premises had increased by £7,000 to £42,000 a year. He said: "In our household this is the only source of income, just this business." 

Mr Sachdeva said he reminded staff of the Challenge 25 policy weekly. He later asked for another chance or a final warning so he could run the business and "do everything that is possible".

A council report on the decision to revoke the premises licence, published on February 1, said the committee agreed there had been a "consistent track record of breaches of the licensing conditions".

It said: "The sub-committee was concerned that a decision to revoke the licence may cause financial hardship to the licence holder and his family. However, the promotion of the licensing objectives must be the prime concern, particularly with regard to underage sales of alcohol. The sub-committee noted that without a licence in place the store would still be able to sell non-licensable goods."

The decision will not come into force until the end of the 21-day period given for appealing the decision, or until the appeal is disposed of if it is made.