South Gloucestershire c-store’s license suspended over selling illegal vapes

A convenience store in South Gloucestershire has had its licence suspended after trading standards and police seized 275 illegal vapes from the premises.

Councillors heard the e-cigarettes seized at News Extra in Burley Grove included the “largest oversize devices” ever found in South Gloucestershire- 15,000-puff vapes, with 12 times the maximum legal nicotine liquid capacity of 2ml.

Senior trading standards enforcement officer Alan Cahill said in April police received a complaint that non-compliant vapes were being sold to under-18s, and a 14-year-old girl had been sold vodka. Police licensing officer Wes Hussey visited the shop and saw e-cigarettes which did not look legally compliant, as well as tobacco products openly on sale.

Police and trading standards officers returned 12 days later and found the illegal vapes stored in crisp boxes. The incident followed the seizure of 15 illegal disposable vapes from the store in 2022, which led to a warning.

Cahill said, “In the last couple of years we’ve received intel or complaints that the shop is allegedly selling e-cigarettes, tobacco products and alcohol to underage people.”

He was speaking at a council licence review hearing on July 25, when trading standards and police asked for the shop’s alcohol licence to be revoked and shopkeeper Sabna Begum be removed as the designated premises supervisor (DPS).

Solicitor Andrea Forrest, representing Begum, said she had “taken her eye off the ball” at the store to raise children and left her husband Syed Imran Ali to run it and he had ordered the illegal vapes. Ali is the sole director of News Extra parent company Burley News Ltd but, as licence holder and DPS, Begum is responsible for day-to-day operations.

Miss Forrest said the family had run the store for 21 years, apart from a brief period in 2017-18, and claims they sold vapes and alcohol to children were “unfounded allegations”.

She said, “Throughout these 21 years there has never been one test purchase where there’s been evidence of an underage sale. Over the years they have been refusing sales (to children).”

Miss Forrest said Ali made a mistake because of a lack of knowledge about illegal vapes, and he was waiting for the supplier to come and collect them when officers found them in boxes.

She added, “This is not about deliberately flouting the law.”

Licensing sub-committee members suspended the shop’s licence for four weeks.

Panel chair Cllr Alex Doyle (Lab, Filton) said, “The sub-committee was concerned that Mrs Begum showed a lack of understanding regarding her role and responsibilities as the premises licence holder and considered that a period of suspension would allow her time to reflect and address the issues raised by trading standards and the police.”