Shop boss ‘went to customer’s house with bat’
A POLICE officer claims a shop owner and his employee went to a customer’s house with a metal pole and a wooden bat after a row.
Town hall chiefs in Tameside have stripped the Multisaver convenience store at 105 Chapel Street in Dukinfield of its alcohol licence following an incident in which they said the two men ‘took the law into their own hands.’
The result of the hearing does not prohibit the shop from staying open and selling other items.
Premises licence holder Hamza Ali and employee Mohammed Imran Hussain are named in a police officer’s witness statement, made publicly available by Tameside council ahead of the hearing.
Both men were arrested and released under investigation.
According to the statement, penned by PC Martin Thorley, £2,000-worth of damage was caused at a customer’s house during an incident on April 19.
Mr Ali told the M.E.N. ahead of the outcome of the hearing his actions were in the ‘heat of the moment’ after Mr Hussain was she said. “So pick yourself up and do your three.”
One follower commented: allegedly assaulted by a customer who he said had been previously banned from the store. Mr Ali said they went to ‘confront him.’
In his statement, PC Thorley said the incident was sparked following a row over a customer’s debit card being declined.
PC Thorley said the woman and her partner returned to question a shopkeeper about it having been ‘cloned’ at the store.
The officer said that led to an altercation between the customer’s partner and the shopkeeper, who PC Thorley identified as Mr Hussain.
PC Thorley said Mr Hussain was allegedly headbutted by the customer’s partner.
According to PC Thorley, later that day, the couple heard ‘loud
“You’re a machine Gemma.”
“Your an inspiration girl!” said another. banging’ at their front door.
PC Thorley said they recognised a man outside as Mr Hussain ‘stood holding what she believed to be a handgun in his two hands.’
“The customer has seen another male, believed to be the DPS for Multisaver, Hamza Ali, stood behind Hussain waving what was believed to be a bat around in the air,” the PC’s statement reads.
According to the statement, CCTV footage from the Multisaver store shows Mr Hussain and Mr Ali leaving with a metal bar and a pick axe handle at 2.17pm and returning at 2.35pm.
The statement says Mr Hussain denied possessing a ‘black and silver’ imitation firearm.
An imitation firearm was found in the store room of the shop, the statement says, adding that Mr Hussain said he had never touched it and didn’t know who it belonged to.
Mr Ali, the statement adds, ‘denied all knowledge of the [imitation firearm] and stated it must have been where the officers found it from before he bought the store.’
The M.E.N. contacted Mr Hussain for comment.