Chapel Stop’n’Shop in Heaton Chapel has lost its licence following a Stockport Council review. The decision came after police found the shop sold a vape to two teenage girls and later discovered 250 packets of illegal cigarettes in a car boot.
Undercover test purchase
The shop on School Lane was one of several targeted in a Greater Manchester Police operation across the borough to crack down on age-restricted sales to children. Police licensing officer Jamie Ellison said they carried out a test purchase at the shop on June 16 acting on intelligence suggesting illicit goods and underage sales were taking place.
Two police cadets, aged 15 and 16, went into the shop and purchased a 6,000+ puff vape ‘with no challenge whatsoever’ from a man called Arshia, who also holds a personal licence in Liverpool. Arshia, 19, said he had been up late the night before watching the World Cup blaming two hours of sleep for the error.
Further discoveries
The test purchase kicked off further investigations into the shop that later found 250 packets of illegal cigarettes stashed in the boot of a car, unused pill sized snap bags of the type PC Ellison said he had not seen ‘any legitimate uses’ of in his police career, a man working illegally claiming he lived four hours away, a lack of staff training, and an ‘unknown male’ who may have delivered the illicit tobacco and cigarette products into the shop.
When challenged over the illicit tobacco products, Arshia said they were for his own consumption as well as for the man working in the shop illegally, telling councillors ‘sometimes I take the ciggies for myself’.
Conflicting accounts and licence review
Conflicting accounts were given about how the unlawful products came to be in the shop. Arshia, who managed the shop alongside studying at a Liverpool college, also admitted he had failed to report suspicions other shops in the area were selling cannabis.
This evidence was reviewed by Stockport councillors at a meeting on August 17 who decided to strip the shop of its licence. Councillor Dominic Hardwick said there had been inconsistent and conflicting accounts from those involved with the shop as well as ‘clear failures to promote the licensing objectives coupled with a pattern of disregard’.
Khan Younis, speaking on behalf of Arshia and his mother Hajar Javanycholaby who held the licence, accepted there had been mistakes but urged councillors to just impose a suspension. This is because he said the business was being sold to a responsible operator and losing the licence would mean ‘catastrophic losses’ for Arshia and his family.
Mr Younis also said steps had been taken by the shop since to improve things. Arshia also said the unused bags were in the shop from before they bought it.
He said: “The objective here is to have someone in this premises who knows what they are doing who can clearly run it properly and cause no issues further to the community. Mr Arshia clearly isn’t the correct person to do this.”
However PC Ellison, along with council licensing and public health officers, urged elected members to revoke the shop’s licence. On a phone call, he said he’d been told ‘we don’t take it that much seriously in the shop because we are going to sell it’.
Referring to the employment of an illegal worker, he said: “At best it demonstrates a failure to carry out appropriate checks and due diligence. At worst it suggests a disregard for legal responsibilities placed upon those who are operating licensed premises.”
When the test purchase took place on June 16, police evidence said two police cadets aged 15 and 16 bought a Fizzy Cherry Hayati vape with more than 6,000 puffs but were not challenged over their age or asked for identification.
After they left, the cadets met up with police officers around the corner when PC Ellison said Arshia walked past and spotted them. When the cadets were preparing to carry out an operation at a second shop, the police officer said Arshia then approached the cadets ‘carrying cash and demanded the return of the vape product’ fearing it may have been part of a test purchase operation.
Arshia claimed he had not seen the teenage girls with the police but later told police he ‘wished to recover the vape from the cadets’. However PC Ellison said he ‘provided no explanation as to why he had not approached them when he had earlier observed them beside the police vehicle’.
