Corner shop could be stripped of licence after it was found selling laughing gas

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

A corner shop could have its licence stripped following allegations that it previously sold nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, to customers.

The Met ordered a review into Thirsty Camel, in Battersea, over concerns about CCTV, staffing and recording incidents at the shop.

PC Natali Lelas, who submitted the review on behalf of the Met, told Wandsworth council’s licensing committee on Wednesday that the shop had continually breached conditions on its premises licence concerning CCTV, staffing and recording incidents.

She said police licensing officers had found the CCTV at the shop, in Lavender Hill, not working properly or recording for long enough “on more than one occasion” – most recently during a visit on April 5.

PC Lelas said: “We’ve had further breaches where there needs to be three members of staff on duty past midnight. There’s only ever two.”

She added: “They have no records of security incidents, no refusal records or anything like that that they can provide to us.”

She said officers visited on August 2, 2022 after receiving intelligence that the shop was “selling nitrous oxide, which is NOS canisters, to youths, or balloons”.

She said: “They’ve denied this, invited us to have a look behind the counter where we saw balloons, the little green canisters, and then we found further large NOS canisters.

“With regards to this, vehicles have been seen by police officers, who are on the safer neighbourhoods team, vehicles attending and providing the premises with these boxes of NOS.” She explained the items were seized by the police.

Nitrous oxide is often used as a recreational drug and sold in metal canisters.

PC Lelas added officers had seen an “increase of antisocial behaviour, which is affecting the crime statistics for the borough” and requested the shop’s licence be revoked.

But licensing consultant Surendra Panchal, representing licence holder Manish Kanal, said the shop’s CCTV has been fixed after the hard drive was changed, and it is now “recording to 31 days”.

He said the shop does “not sell nitrous oxide now” after being made aware it was illegal to sell.

The consultant said Mr Kanal’s father had been working at the shop but fell ill, meaning “there was no staff available at that very instance and that is one of the reasons they had only two staff working at the premises”.

He said the shop had put out an advertisement for another member of staff, and that it also has a refusals book, incident book and training manual which are used regularly.

The committee’s decision on the review will be published in due course

Pictured top: Thirsty Camel, at 246 Lavender Hill (Picture: Google Street View)