LICENCE SUSPENSION FOR RAMSGATE TRADER

A Ramsgate woman has been fined £1,500 and had her personal licence to sell alcohol suspended for four months, after pleading guilty to three different breaches of her licensing conditions.

An application was made in January 2010 for Sweet Crazy in St. Lawrence High Street to sell alcohol, which was granted, with a number of conditions attached. One of those conditions was that someone with a personal licence to sell alcohol should be present on the premises at all times, when they were open.

Amithagowry Geretheran (28) from St. Luke’s Avenue, was the licence holder and designated premises supervisor at the shop, making her responsible for sales of alcohol there.

The council and police were told in April 2010 that under-age drinking was taking place in Ellington Park, with the alcohol purchased from Sweet Crazy. They visited the premises just before 11pm on a Friday night and found just one man in the shop, who did not hold a personal licence to sell alcohol. CCTV from the premises showed that there had been no personal licence holder there for 50 minutes of the previous hour.

Mrs. Geretheran was cautioned for breaching her licence conditions and confirmed she was aware of the conditions that had been imposed on her. She was asked if the worker who was behind the counter when the officers arrived held a personal licence and she confirmed that he did not. When asked why he was left alone in the shop, she told the officers that it was only for a few minutes.

The CCTV also showed that an adult had earlier bought lager which had been given to a group of youths outside of the shop. This footage could be viewed by staff behind the counter.

The second offence related to the refusals register, which is meant to be filled in when alcohol sales are refused. CCTV showed that there had been a transaction earlier that night, where an alcohol sale was refused to youths, but this was not noted in the register. Further inspection of the register showed that weekly reviews of it had also not been carried out.

Mrs. Geretheran was fined £500 for each of the three offences and was ordered to pay £100 costs and the £15 victim surcharge. Her personal licence was also suspended for four months.

Cllr. Simon Moores, Cabinet Member for Customer Services and Regulatory Services, said: “These were serious offences, particularly as in this case, the licence holder was very well aware of the conditions that had been imposed upon them. It wasn’t just a few minutes when there was no personal licence holder present in the shop. The CCTV showed that to be completely untrue. We’re determined to improve the safety of our streets and having people without a licence selling alcohol to adults who then pass it on to children does nothing to help that aim.”