Normanton retailer surrenders licence after illegal tobacco allegations

A shop boss has surrendered his alcohol licence after police said they’d found illicit tobacco and a man with no right to work in the UK at the premises.

Muzafar Kamal Rahman, the licence holder for Baryla, in Normanton, Wakefield was due to attend a hearing on Wednesday morning.

West Yorkshire Police had asked Wakefield Council to consider revoking the store’s right to sell booze as punishment for the alleged findings, from March this year.

However, the hearing was cancelled just 24 hours before it was due to take place.

The council said the licence had been surrendered ahead of the hearing so there was now “nothing to review”.

In papers published on the council’s website earlier this month, PC Jonathan Kaye, from West Yorkshire Police, said undercover officers carried out test purchases at the store and were sold “counterfeit and smuggled cigarette brands” on each occasion.

He added: “Following these incidents, officers from West Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Trading Standards have entered and searched the premises and located quantities of illicit tobacco products.

“Also present inside and believed to be working in the shop was a male whose immigration status prevented him from being employed in any capacity.”