An off-licence in Moss Side was found selling ‘homemade’ rum cocktails as ‘slush puppies’, with some of the product found stored in ‘jerry cans’ on the premises, according to a police report.
The drink, known as Rum Beats, was claimed in a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) report to have been made and sold at Richie and Nikki's Off Licence on Princess Road on an ‘industrial scale’ as a type of ‘Jamaican rum punch cocktail’.
Licensing review details
Details of the sales at the shop were shared in reports published in a public hearing on Monday (October 5) during a review of the premises licence by Manchester council. The shop's premises licence was temporarily suspended at a previous hearing in September.
It was said during the hearing on Monday that the Rum Beats cocktails were made by mixing Wray and Nephew, a 63 per cent alcohol volume Jamaican rum, with fruit juice, and that the drinks were usually sold by the business at events and fairs.
GMP said in their report: “Officers described the production process as homemade and unsophisticated, and could see no evidence of any quality control measures, appropriate hygiene measures, or equipment to establish accuracy or consistency within production.”
Seizures and unpaid duty
According to the GMP documents, Rum Beats products were seized from the shop inside 11 jerrycans during a visit on September 9, alongside bottles and a mixing container, with suspicions that alcohol was being ‘unlawfully imported’ to the premises as part of the operation.
Officials from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) joined GMP on the visit due to ‘intelligence which suggested the store was selling wholesale alcohol without having paid the relevant exercise duty’.
PC Stuart Hammersley from GMP said at the licensing hearing on Monday that HMRC are ‘still investigating’ the situation, and that customs officials have calculated there was £929.37 of unpaid duty on seized products from the shop.
Cigarettes from Jamaica were also found at the premises, which according to the GMP report ‘did not contain the required UK tobacco track and trace codes’.
Licence holders respond
The review of the premises licence at Richie's and Nickie's Liquor Store took place after an application by GMP.
PC Stuart Hammersley said at the hearing: “We just feel we have a lack of confidence going forward that the premises will uphold the licensing objectives in terms of the prevention of crime and disorder.”
The premises licence holders were named by the council as Harold Mckenzie and Nickeysha Alecia McKenzie.
Duncan Craig, representing the licence holders at the hearing, challenged the ‘emotive’ language used in GMP’s reports, which accused the premises of ‘fraudulent’ behaviour and of flogging products which ‘the public would probably describe as having fallen off the back of a lorry’.
Mr Craig denied any suggestion of what he described as ‘dodgy booze’ being sold at the shop.
He added: “Those characteristics that have been provided in police documents are not correct and not fair on my client.
“Greater Manchester Police are asserting that these products have had no duty paid on them, but we have no evidence before us that this is the case.”
Mr Craig pointed to evidence submitted to the council of invoices paid for booze products, and said it came from a supplier the business has used ‘again and again’ and ‘not just some guy who rocks up in a transit van’.
One of the issues flagged by GMP at the shop was the lack of an alcohol wholesaler registration scheme (AWRS) number on an invoice for some of the businesses’ stock.
But Mr Craig said at the licensing hearing: “This invoice is described as fraudulent but I would say anyone looking at it would say it is genuine.”
He explained that the Jamaican cigarettes found at the shop were not being sold but ‘given out to some of the old boys’ from Jamaica.
Summing up the shop’s case, Mr Craig said: “[My clients] understand the position with the AWRS, they used an existing supplier and it was available, but they understand the importance of that now.
“They understand that they can't sell Rum Beats at the premises, they understand that they can't give the cigarettes away to the old boys.
“This is not a business that bears the hallmarks that you normally see of someone storing and smuggling goods for the purpose of making a gain for themselves.”
After hearing both sides, the council’s licensing committee decided to lift the suspension of the shop’s premises licence, and add a further licensing condition over how the shop’s invoices are stored and can be made available to GMP and the council.
