Store loses its alcohol licence after stash of illegal cigs are found

A COVENTRY shop has lost its alcohol licence after a stash of illegal cigarettes was found hidden in a sewage drain and sweet jars.

Officers from Coventry Trading Standards raided the Sam Mini Market in Foleshill Road in December 2016 with sniffer dogs and discovered the stash.

The council’s Licensing and Regulatory Sub-Committee heard that the illegal stash was discovered just three months after the shop had its licence to sell alcohol granted.

Corina Florina Ondrea, the licence holder of the Mini Market, had applied for the licence in August 2016.

However, as there had been a previous history of seizures of illegal tobacco products from her shop, trading standards put a condition on the licence.

This meant she agreed that all alcohol and tobacco products on sale would be purchased from legitimate, traceable sources, that they should not evade any duty or taxes and should comply with UK law. The licence was granted on September 23, 2016.

But during the raid, packets of illegal tobacco were found hidden in the sweet containers at the till area, other packets were found in a locked cupboard under the counter and a further stash was found in the sewage drain in the rear yard.

All the tobacco products found during the seizure were either foreign labelled or did not have the health warning in English.

Councillor Ann Lucas, chairman of the Licensing and Regulatory Sub-Committee, said: “Our trading standards team provided us with some compelling evidence in the case of the Sam Mini Market.

“Ms Ondrea, the licence holder, couldn’t offer us any plausible explanation as to why there was illegal tobacco on her premises in spite of the conditions of her licence.

“All premises licence holders must meet the licensing conditions, and the sub-committee had little hesitation in finding she had failed to do so and had clearly breached an agreed licensing condition.

“Selling fake and illegally imported tobacco can put people’s health at risk and harm legitimate traders. Coventry City Council and its trading standards team take unlawful activity such as this very seriously and this is reflected by the decision taken to revoke the licence.”

Ms Ondrea was present at the Licencing and Regulatory SubCommittee Hearing on Monday.

She has 21 days to consider appealing against the council’s decision.