Bottle store feud heads to tribunal
A liquor store owner involved in a long-running stoush has his licence renewed, but neighbours are planning an appeal. Steve Kilgallon reports.
A bottle-store owner embroiled in a long-running feud that has split the business community of the South Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe will keep his liquor licence – but the battle will continue on to a higher court.
An extraordinary liquor licensing hearing last month heard of the bitter disagreement between Gurpreet ‘‘Guru’’ Kandola, who owns the suburb’s Black Bull Sky Liquor store, and his neighbour, Gas petrol station owner Albert Lim.
Lim’s son, Hendrick, opposed the renewal of Kandola’s liquor licence, producing a dossier of CCTV evidence showing what he alleged was a series of after-hours sales, drinking in the car park, two dramatic car crashes, fireworks being aimed at the petrol station and a rolling brawl in which one combatant struck another with a wooden pallet.
However, Auckland’s liquor licensing committee renewed Kandola’s licence, albeit for two years instead of the standard three, giving him the ‘‘benefit of the doubt’’ after deciding the Lims’ evidence was tainted by the two families’ long-running dispute.
The argument dates to when Lim, chair of the local business association, banned Kandola from membership after alleging he had tried to fix a committee election with copied ballot papers – a claim Kandola denies.
The Lims did not want to be interviewed, but their lawyer, Grant Hewison, said they were ‘‘seriously considering’’ lodging an appeal to the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority.
Kandola says he doesn’t care, as
he knows he will win. ‘‘Let him appeal – there is nothing to worry about,’’ he said.
‘‘He can do whatever he wants to do, because I have been confident from the start because there is nothing wrong with this liquor store or my suitability, I am clean.’’
Kandola said the Lims’ evidence was ‘‘impacted’’ by their dislike for him.
However, Hewison said the dispute was actually a ‘‘side issue’’ to a ‘‘very serious matter’’ and the real crux was whether Kandola had sold alcohol after hours.
The decision, authored by committee chair Hannah Cheeseman, noted ‘‘the very clear animosity held towards the applicant by the objectors and other members of the Papatoetoe Main Street Society. There is a clear neighbourhood
dispute in play, and it has impacted the objectivity of the evidence.’’
The decision traversed the unusual evidence. It said the brawl ‘‘creates pause for thought’’, but said there was no evidence the combatants were drunk, or had been buying alcohol at Black Bull.
It said the fireworks episode was a ‘‘concerning incident ... however, again as a one-off incident’’ it was not a major factor. It rejected the car crashes as an issue, saying they weren’t related to the liquor store, and considered the complaints of littering and carpark drinking to be inconsequential.
The decision said the fact police and liquor licensing didn’t oppose his application weighed in his favour, along with the lack of any enforcement actions and Kandola’s clean criminal record.
But the committee warned him: ‘‘Mr Kandola should be very clear that proven instances of selling alcohol outside the licensed hours will impact on his suitability if future renewal applications are opposed’’.
The hearing pivoted around alleged after-hours sales, with Kandola producing timed till receipts suggesting he hadn’t broken the 11pm curfew, and Hendrick Lim providing timestamped video footage suggesting he had.
Hewison said he’d never seen another hearing where there was ‘‘this amount of CCTV evidence’’ and he said the case came down to his client’s recordings of afterhours sales versus Kandola’s ‘‘remarkable’’ receipts showing sales at 10.59.59.
He said it was another example of a committee giving the benefit of the doubt to applicants, and he said the decision implied Mr Lim had manipulated his recordings, which he was very upset about.
The committee could not decide who was telling the truth, but said the CCTV footage ‘‘causes serious concern . . . it cannot be said that the objectors’ concerns are without foundation’’ but it criticised Hendrick Lim for editing the footage and not disclosing that until asked.
Hewison said the case was an example of how the Sale and Supply of Liquor Act was ‘‘quite broken’’.
‘‘When Parliament passed the act, it said it would be harder for people to get licences, and easier to lose them. The reverse has been true for communities: It is easier to get a licence under this act, and it is almost impossible to lose one.’’