Newsagents lose licences after selling alcohol to youngsters

Published on Tuesday 12 February 2008 09:36

TWO newsagents have been stripped of their alcohol licences following police investigations into the selling of stolen goods and serving drink to youngsters and drunks.

The Sheikhs Newsagent in Leith and the Mace store on South Bridge had their licences suspended yesterday in a move that licensing chiefs said would send "a clear message" to off-sales in the city.

Councillors were told by police that the owners of Sheikhs Newsagent on Great Junction Street had been the subject of two investigations over the sale of stolen electrical goods at their store.

Senior police officials added that Arif Hussein, whose wife Anjam Sheikh owned the licence at the shop, had been fined by the procurator fiscal for selling stolen goods at the store in May 2006.

Just months later, in August 2006, officers also investigated the legitimacy of scores of mobile phones that were put on sale at the shop, although no charges were brought against Mr Hussein.

At the meeting of the city's licensing board yesterday, police officials also said that they felt the couple were no longer fit to hold a licence as the store was known by local youngsters as "the place to go" to buy alcohol.

Underage children caught with drink had confessed to buying it there. Lawyers representing Mrs Sheikh said she had given control of the shop to her husband during the time the incidents took place and urged the board not to suspend the licence, as she had now returned to manage the newsagents full time.

However, licensing chiefs said they took the incidents "very seriously" and unanimously agreed to strip the store of its licence for the next 12 months.

Councillor Alastair Paisley, who sits on the board, said: "This sends a clear message throughout Edinburgh that licensees must behave in an appropriate way and adhere to the rules or they will be stripped of their licences.

"The police believe that Mrs Sheikh is no longer a fit and proper person to hold a licence."

At the meeting, councillors also agreed to suspend the licence at the Mace store on South Bridge for six months, after hearing that police had been called to investigate staff selling alcohol to minors and drunks.

Police officials said that the shop's licensee, Mumtaz Ali, had "consistently failed" to adhere to warnings and claimed that, in one case, staff at the store had sold alcohol to a vagrant who was "clearly under the influence".

Lawyers for Mr Ali said that, as the board had previously granted him a licence in October and that he had not yet been fined over the latest incident, he should be allowed to retain his licence.

However, the city's licensing leader Marjorie Thomas said that she felt there was "no choice" but to suspend it for six months.

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