High Wycombe store faces review after illegal tobacco sales

A shop previously busted for selling unlicensed alcohol will have its permit reviewed after one of its workers was convicted for selling illegal tobacco products to a consumer watchdog.

Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards has applied to Bucks Council for a review of the premises licence at High Wycombe Food and Wine, 180 Desborough Road.

The review comes after the sale and subsequent seizure of illegal tobacco products from the premises in December 2019.

A van parked outside the shop containing 188 packets of cigarettes and 76 pouches of hand-rolling tobacco (3,800 grams) was registered to Surjan Singh Sethi, of Lynhurst Crescent, Hillingdon.

Although he denied selling the tobacco products to the test purchaser in December 2019, he did confirm that only he and his brother Jaswin Singh Sethi, of Mornington Road, Greenford, work in the shop and are partners.

At High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court, on February 17, Surjan Singh Sethi pleaded guilty to eight offences.

He received a £230 fine for each offence.

A Trading Standards officer said: “We do not have any evidence that Jaswin Singh Sethi was involved in the supply of these illegal tobacco products.”

The premises licence review is ‘on the grounds of the prevention of crime and disorder’.

“Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards made a test purchase of illegal tobacco products from the premises in December 2019,” wrote an officer for Trading Standards.

“The test purchaser went into the premises and asked for cheap tobacco. A price of £6.50 was agreed per packet of cigarettes and an agreement was made for the purchase of six packets of 20 cigarettes.

“The test purchaser paid the shop occupier and was then told to stand outside the front of the shop by the bus stop.

“The shop occupier went outside the premises to a van parked outside the front of the shop to obtain the tobacco products.

“The van storing the illegal tobacco products was registered to Surjan Singh Sethi.

“Following on from this test purchase, Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards visited the premises in December 2019 and seized a quantity of illegal tobacco products.

“A total of 188 packets of 20 cigarettes and 76 pouches of hand-rolling tobacco (3,800 grams) were found in the same van parked outside the front of the shop.

“Mr Surjan Singh Sethi was the only person in the premises when this visit was carried out and initially denied that the van outside the premises was his and refused to provide the keys to Trading Standards officers.

“All of the tobacco products from the test purchase and the Trading Standards visit were found to be non-compliant with the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 and the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Regulations 2015.

“This was due to them not containing the correct English written health warnings. The packets also did not contain the correct pictorial health warnings and were not in the correct packaging colour, which is required for tobacco products to be sold in the UK.

“One of the brands of tobacco seized was confirmed as being counterfeit and found to be in breach of the Trade Marks Act 1994.

“In a written PACE interview, Mr Surjan Singh Sethi denied it was him that sold the tobacco products to the test purchaser in December 2019.

“He could not provide details of who sold the tobacco products. However, all of the tobacco products obtained from the test purchase and the visit were found in the van registered to Mr Surjan Singh Sethi.

“He said that it is only him and his brother Jaswin Singh Sethi that work in the shop and that they are both partners of the shop.”

In 2008, police requested the licence, belonging to Surjan Singh Sethi, be reviewed following ‘a number of breaches’.

Another police request for review of the premises licence was made in March 2010, and in May the premises licence was revoked. This decision was upheld on appeal at court.

In January 2011, Mr Sethi’s brother, Jaswin Singh Sethi applied for a premises licence.

Then, in December 2019, Guinness Extra was found being sold on site, contrary to a licence condition not to sell alcohol products in excess of six per cent.

Mr Sethi’s brother was later refused permission for a licence amendment to stock specialist alcohol products, following a police objection.

The premises licence will be reviewed during a licensing sub-committee hearing, on June 17.