A north London shop may lose its licence after staff were caught buying alcohol which had been stolen from Sainsbury’s.
The store faces a licensing review by Islington Council on Tuesday following an investigation by police.
It comes after plain clothes officers spotted a man entering Crouch Hill Supermarket in November carrying a bag full of shopping, before leaving minutes later with the bag empty.
A report handed to Islington’s sub-licensing committee reveals that officers entered the shop and grilled staff, who initially denied all wrong-doing.
However, when their crime became “obvious”, they admitted buying nine bottles of wine off the man for £35, according to Pc Steve Harrington.
In his report, he also said that the Sainsbury’s security tags were found in the bin next to the bottles in the shop’s store room.
Licensee Huseyin Boybeybbi and his son Savvas admitted the crime and signed a “community resolution” in January at Islington police station. Another worker was in the store room on the day of the alleged crime.
Pc Harrington said the owners intimated to him that the incident was not a one-off.
In his report, he added: “Mr Savvas Boybeyi lied to police in the first instance, before he realised that the crime he had committed was obvious, and captured on CCTV.
“The venue does stock a lot of wines, and has a stock room full to the brim of alcohol.
“We have no way of knowing how much of this has been purchased legally.”
He goes on to say of the bosses: “They have gone beyond the comparatively minor offences of failing to adhere to two very straightforward conditions [to not buying alcohol off the street and to report the seller to trading standards] – they have gone a far stride further and broken the law on a greater scale in terms of handling stolen goods.
“It is our opinion that they as a team cannot be trusted, from the licence holder and designated premises supervisor down to the shop assistant.
“They have all shown a complete disregard for to the licensing objectives.”
Police want all three workers banned from having “anything to do with the day to day management, running of or ant form or employment at the venue.”
They also want the council to consider a suspension of the licence
