Agenda and minutes

Councillor Tony Owen was appointed Chairman.

There were no declarations of interest.

Decision:  

That additional conditions be imposed on the licence, namely:  

1) That the premises adopts the “Challenge 25 scheme” whereby any person

that appears under 25 years of age has to prove they are 18 or over by

providing identification bearing their photograph, date of birth and a

holographic mark and/or ultraviolet feature. Examples of appropriate

identification include passport, photo card driving licence, military ID and

proof of age card bearing the PASS hologram.  

2)  The Premises Licence Holder shall ensure that a bound paper refusals

register or electronic refusals register is maintained and kept on the premises

and that this shall be immediately made available to Police or Council Officers

on request. Refusal register records shall be held for a minimum of 12

months.  

3)  The refusal register shall be inspected on a regular basis (at least weekly)

by the DPS (Designated Premises Supervisor) and signed by the DPS that they have checked the register.

4)  Signage of the ‘Challenge’ 25 policy shall be prominently displayed on the

premises.  

5. All staff who sell alcohol to the public shall complete the prevention of

underage sales online training provided by the Chartered Trading Standards

Institute and Virtual College (or a similar training by another provider) by 17th

August 2017 or within 12 weeks of their first appointment at the premises, if

the appointment was after that date. Records of the training and of the

certificates confirming successful completion of the training will be kept and

made available to Police or Council Officers on request.  

6. CCTV cameras / system must be in working condition, in use and recording

at all times that licensable activities are taking place. The system must be

maintained to ensure it is always fully operational. The images recorded must

be of good evidential standard, allow for facial recognition of suspects, be

able to record in all lighting conditions and be capable of being downloaded

and supplied on request to either an authorised officer of the Council or a

Metropolitan Police Officer. The recordings should be kept for a minimum of

31 days.  

It was also decided that the licence be suspended for a period of two weeks.

The Review:

The Licensing Sub-Committee carefully considered the application made by Rob Vale of behalf of Trading Standards at London Borough ofBromley to review the premises licence of Capital Wines, 21 Penge Lane, Bromley SE20 7DU.

The application for review arose out of a test purchase on 1st December 2016, when Mrs Patel, the wife of the designated premises supervisorand premises licence holder, at the premises sold alcohol and a packet of cigarettes to two female volunteers under the age of 18, having failed to ask for identification to prove that they were 18 years of age or over.

There had been a prior visit on behalf of the Trading Standards division on 18th October 2016 when advice was given about the sale of age restricted products. Information had also been given on a previous occasion about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

The Sub-Committee considered an application made by Mr Rob Vale of the Trading Standards division for a review of the premises licence on the grounds set out in the application and in particular in respect a test sale made on 14th March 2017. The test sale was to 15 year old and 16 year old female volunteers who purchased one bottle of Bulmer’s Wild Blueberry and Lime Cider, one bottle of Bulmer’s Crushed Red Berries and Lime Cider and a packet of Mayfair cigarettes.

The test purchase followed a visit to the shop on 31^st January 2017 by a Senior Customer Protection Inspector who gave advice about the sale of age restricted products and provided an underage sales information pack. A letter had also been sent to the premises giving information about a training opportunity and giving notice that an underage volunteer would visit the premises in the future and attempt to make a test purchase of an age restricted product.

The premises licence holder and the designated premises supervisor is Mr Rajeshkumar Ramaswamy. He did not attend the Review hearing. Instead, Mr Nick Singh attended who said he was the owner of the business. Mr Singh advised that Mr Ramaswamy’s wife was unwell and he accordingly had asked him to attend. Mr Singh advised that there were 3 staff including himself and Mr Ramaswamy who ran the business. The test sale had been made by Mr Bal Baria who was no longer employed at the premises. Although Mr Baria said there was not a refusals register and unable to find any training records, Mr Singh said these did exist although he did not bring them to the hearing. Although Mr Baria said he would be working on his own all that evening (a condition on the premises licence required two staff members whenever alcohol sales extend beyond 19.00 hours) Mr Singh said there were sufficient members of staff for two persons to be present.

The Committee was not satisfied that sufficient measures had been put in place to ensure sales of age restricted products to underage persons would not take place in the future and felt that the evidence may also reveal a lack of compliance with licence conditions. Although the Committee was satisfied that Mr Ramaswamy had received notice of the hearing, the Committee felt he should be given a further opportunity to address the Sub-Committee and put his side of the matters.

We accordingly adjourned the review hearing to a date to be notified by the Council, asked that Mr Ramaswamy attend with the refusals log, the training records and be prepared to demonstrate that the licence conditions were being complied with.