India-run store loses license for selling alcohol to kids

The police have blamed the illegal sales at Jalaram News in Leicester town's Saffron Lane for a wave of drunken behaviour by children as young as 14 or 15.

Police and Leicester City Council launched an investigation when public complaints about the shop began to mount up and caught an illegal sale on camera.

At a hearing in the town hall, police showed CCTV images of two 15-year-old boys being served and leaving the shop, only to panic when they saw police officers approaching.
The footage showed them running back inside the shop and hiding a bag containing cans of lager. Police went inside and questioned staff, who denied all knowledge of the sale. The officers then searched the shop and found the bag.

Owners Jayesh and Pravina Patel were eventually stripped of the right to sell alcohol. They insisted that they had committed such a mistake only once, saying: “We always ask people for identification before we sell alcohol. The council has sent kids into the shop and we always pass those tests.”

But city councillor John Thomas told Leicester Mercury newspaper: “The Patels were determined to put their business interests before the interests of the community. That is irresponsible, selfish and dangerous. We want to get a clear message out to licence-holders that this is a serious business.”