Two underage alcohol sales leads to licensing review for Brighton shop

A shop could be banned from selling alcohol after it was caught selling drinks to under-age teenagers twice in a matter of months.

Police asked councillors to consider suspending the licence for the Nisa store, in The Highway, Moulsecoomb, for eight weeks.

Sussex Police applied to Brighton and Hove City Council for a licence review after test purchases by 16-year-olds in August and December.

On both occasions the youngsters were able to buy drinks even though they weren’t 18.

And on Monday (March 16) a council licensing panel heard from the police and the shop’s owners as they weighed up their decision.

Police said that they carried out the first test purchase after young people linked with a serious incident in the area said that they had bought alcohol from the shop.

Two people were allegedly stabbed at a house party in Bevendean Crescent last July.

The licensing panel, which sat at Hove Town Hall, was told that a member of staff was fined after a 16-year-old volunteer bought alcohol on Wednesday 21 August.

A second test took place on Monday 16 December when another 16-year-old bought a discounted bottle of Amstel beer from a new member of staff who had been trained the day before.

Sussex Police licensing officer Hannah Staplehurst said that the staff member did not realise that the bottle contained alcohol because she did not drink and the till did not alert her.

She said: “I feel they have worked very well with us between the two failures.

“The lady who was on the till it was her first day on the till and she had a member of staff who was supposed to be working with her.

“Unfortunately, the member of staff who was working with her had her back to her the whole time. Had she been facing the right way she would have picked up it was a bottle of alcohol.”

Ms Staplehurst said that it would be helpful if staff learnt about the products that they were selling rather than relying on the till to prompt them.

Officers also found Lambrini White, a high-alcohol perry, on sale even though the shop had signed up to the council and police’s “sensible on strength” policy after the first failed test.