Licensing reviews
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Latest action
2 September 2019 – Licence Revoked.
Mr Aziz FATAH (45) of Princess Street Coventry, the current Premises Licence Holder and Designated Premises Supervisor for Bucuresti (formerly known as Bucharest) - 490A Foleshill Road, Coventry CV6 5HP had his Premises Licence revoked after illegal tobacco had been found hidden in 2 separate purpose built concealments.
On 5 December 2018 Trading Standards officers visited the premises with a tobacco sniffer dog. Mr FATAH was present when Officers discovered at rear corner of the shop two shelving units cleverly hidden behind a door frame leading to the upstairs of the property.
On 16 January 2019 a test purchase was made and a smuggled [non-duty] packet of Polish cigarettes were sold for £5.00.
On 26 January 2019 Trading Standards officers visited the shop again and the sniffer dog indicated the presence of tobacco by a shelving unit which contained cans of pop and alcohol. Officers discovered that there was a secret compartment built behind the bottom of this shelving unit.
In total, 364 packets of illegal cigarettes, a mixture of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes were found which had a street value of approximately £1,638.00 and £3,640.00 if genuine.
The Council’s Licensing and Regulatory Sub-Committee, in reaching their decision noted statutory guidance states that certain criminal activity should be treated as being particularly serious, including smuggled tobacco.
The Sub Committee also found the explanations given by the licensee were both evasive, implausible, and unsupported by any evidence. The licensee had also failed to provide any assurances or details of any controls that he could put in place to prevent a recurrence of the reported incident.
The Sub Committee considered that a suspension of the licence would not be appropriate owing to the fact that illicit cigarettes were found on two separate occasions within three weeks of the licensee accepting that he took over control of the premises.
The Sub Committee concluded that only revocation of the premises licence would be appropriate and proportionate in the circumstances.