A Weston-super-Mare shop has been told it can continue selling alcohol, after it insisted police claims that it had sold alcohol to a 13-year-old girl were untrue.
The police had called for Weston Convenience Store to lose its licence to sell alcohol over the alleged sale in October 2022 and what they said were other subsequent breaches of its licence — but the police provided no evidence of the underage sale except for a statement that police had later visited the shop. North Somerset Council’s licensing subcommittee ruled that the shop could continue to trade with no changes to its licence.
Rohit Julka, proprietor of Weston Convenience Store, said in a statement after the licensing subcommittee meeting on January 7: “There was indeed an underage sale in 2022, to a 17-year-old male — not a 13-year-old girl as claimed. We have been inspected and test-purchased ever since, and there have been no repeats.”
Representing the shop at the licensing subcommittee meeting on January 7, solicitor Nick Semper of The Licensing Guys, said: “As far as Rohit is concerned, no 13-year-old female made any such transaction.”
Mr Julka told the subcommittee that the sale had happened just one month after they opened on the day of the Weston Beach Race when the town was packed with people. The shop provided a CCTV image showing the alleged infraction. Mike Solomon (Hutton and Locking, Liberal Democrat) who sits on the subcommittee agreed it did not show a 13-year-old girl, although said it could be an image from a different occasion.
Police had also accused designated premises supervisor Nipun Chawla and some shop staff of being in a group that had been letting off fireworks outside the shop on November 3, 2024 — one of which went off horizontally. Police licensing officer Andy Manhire said: “These fireworks are a clear risk to the public.”
Mr Semper agreed the letting off of fireworks, done in celebration of Diwali, near the highway was “unacceptable” and said Mr Chalwa had stepped down as designated premises supervisor at the earliest opportunity, to be replaced in the role by Mr Julka. Both men are directors of the business, which has four other shops. But Mr Semper added that it was not a licensing matter and the shop had been closed at the time.
The chair of the licensing committee, Stuart Davies (Wick St Lawrence and St Georges, Independent) — who is a former police officer — said letting off fireworks by the road was a “serious incident” and asked why the police had raised it at the committee, but not interviewed or arrested anyone. He said: “Why hasn’t it been investigated properly?” Mr Manhire said the police had limited resources to deal with issues in the town centre.
Weston Convenience Store is located opposite the floral clock, an area of Weston-super-Mare known for having street drinkers, and is subject to licensing conditions requiring it to label all alcohol as coming from the shop. Mr Manhire said he had visited the shop and found about half the alcohol was missing labels, although the shop insisted it was a one-off occasion where new stock was unlabelled and they had spent £262 on 180,000 labels to put on new stock.
The licensing committee was shown CCTV of a known street drinker buying alcohol in the shop while, in the view of police, drunk and in a state where he should not have been served. The man in the shop at the time insisted he did not think he was drunk and, on viewing the footage, Mr Davies said: “I have seen people worse on a Friday or Saturday night getting served in a lot of the pubs in Weston.”
Police also said they had found an alcohol container labelled as coming from the shop left behind by street drinkers who had caused a disturbance, but could not remember what the alcohol was or its strength when asked. Mr Semper said the shop had voluntarily stopped selling the strong alcohol preferred by street drinkers.
The committee said the only breach of the licensing conditions it had seen evidence of was of failing to label all the alcohol as coming from the shop, and said it would not revoke the licence of the shop or require them to follow any new conditions. But Mr Davies said: “This is a shot across the bows — a warning. And, if you are brought back before this committee, a revocation may be considered.”
He urged Mr Julka to work with the council’s licensing officers to address concerns at the shop and his other stores.
In his statement after the meeting, Mr Julka said that the review into their licence called by the police was due to “fundamental misunderstandings.” He said: “The fact that a can of some unknown alcoholic product was found in the possession of someone drinking in a public place does not establish that our shop has done anything wrong. Likewise the police claim that we sold a single can to a drunken man was simply incorrect, as the CCTV evidence disproved that allegation completely.
“It is true that our previous designated premises supervisor let off fireworks in the street during Diwali celebrations. However no licensable activities were involved in the incident, and the shop was even closed at the time. In any event, this member of staff has now stood down as DPS.
“We voluntarily no longer stock the types of strong beers and ciders favoured by street drinkers, and will continue not to do so until it is established that we are not the source of the alcohol which these unfortunate people self-medicate with.”
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
