Family thwarted in attempts to get round booze licence restriction by setting up next door
By Charlotte Lilywhite, Local Democracy Reporter
A bid to run an off-licence next to a shop which allegedly sold alcohol and vapes to underage children has been refused, due to a family connection between the businesses.
The Met opposed Neeto Kaur Sachdeva’s plans to sell booze at Mitcham Road Local, in Tooting, over concerns it shared the same staff as World Superstore next door, which lost its licence in 2023.
Wandsworth council’s licensing committee rejected Ms Sachdeva’s application to sell alcohol every day at the shop, at 83 Mitcham Road, after considering the Met’s concerns at a hearing on March 12.
The committee ruled the application was an attempt to regain a premises licence by the same family linked to World Superstore, at 85 Mitcham Road.
It comes after the Met raised concerns that crime and antisocial behaviour would increase if Mitcham Road Local was allowed to sell booze due to its family connection to World Superstore.
PC Belinda Loizou said in a statement she had visited the shop in January and believed it was being managed by the same people that ran World Superstore.
World Superstore lost its licence in January 2023 for allegedly selling booze and vapes to underage children. The revoked licence was in the name of Ms Sachdeva’s husband Meet Singh Sachdeva, while it was being managed at the time by her older son Anu Singh Sachdeva.
PC Loizou wrote: “Given this history, I have serious concerns that similar issues may arise again at this location. I respectfully urge the licensing authority to carefully consider this objection and refuse the application as I believe granting the licence would have a significant negative impact on the local community.”
Barrister Horaine Henry, representing the Met, raised concerns the family was trying to circumvent World Superstore’s inability to sell alcohol ‘so, effectively, it makes no difference if you knock out the wall between the two’. He pointed out that Mitcham Road Local was described as an off-licence in the application, although it is currently a luggage and accessory business.
Mr Henry said: “The steps proposed by the applicant so far should not in any way satisfy the panel that the risk of harm to children is not likely to reoccur.”
Licensing consultant Surendra Panchal, representing the applicant, said Ms Sachdeva’s application should be considered on its own merits. He said she would manage the business well, as she had previously worked in another off-licence, and follow correct procedures. He added her husband and older son, who no longer manage World Superstore, would be banned from the shop.
Mr Panchal said: “At the present moment, there is no evidence that she is going to breach any of the licensing objectives because she hasn’t breached any of the licensing objectives in her past work.”
But the licensing committee rejected the application after deciding it was likely Mitcham Road Local and World Superstore would switch roles if the licence was granted.
A report on the decision said banning Meet and Anu Singh Sachdeva from entering Mitcham Road Local would not stop them from helping to run it, and the committee found it likely they would be involved due to the ‘family connection between the two shops’.
Pictured top: The two stores, sitting cheek by jowl (Picture: Google Street View)