A SOUTHAMPTON shop which sold beer to a 15-year-old boy and stocked nearly 200 litres of illicit booze has had its alcohol licence revoked.

A crackdown by customs and trading standards officers found that the Best One shop in St Mary Street had 196 bottles which either did not have duty stamps or had suspected counterfeit labels.

Just two months later a joint test purchase by Hampshire Constabulary and trading standards resulted in the shop selling four cans of lager to a 15-year-old boy.

Jon Wallsgrove, representing licence holder Ahmad Khushdil, told a Southampton City Council licensing committee that the review itself had acted as a “wake up call” and that suspending Mr Khushdil’s licence would be a disproportionate punishment.

But panel chairman and city councillor Matt Tucker said: “The panel has very grave concerns over the premises licence holder’s ability to manage a business of this type in this area.

“In the circumstances the committee decided it could suspend the licence for three months but has reduced that to six weeks because of the detrimental effect it would have on the licence holder.

“A suspension of six weeks was thought to be an appropriate and proportionate response and a deterrent to other businesses.”

On September 24 last year, 121 litres of spirits were seized including vodka and whisky which had fake duty stamps, as well as other spirits without stamps.

Additionally 450g of nonduty paid tobacco were found, along with 97.5 litres of wine which was also believed to be non-duty paid.

Following the September raid, police found that Mr Khushdil’s brother sold four cans of lager to a 15-year-old boy in a test purchase on November 27.

Mr Khushdil said that he had bought the alcohol from a cash-and-carry wholesaler, which was registered to an address in Winchester which was later found not to exist.

Speaking for Mr Khushdil, Mr Wallsgrove said: “He’s saying he has made mistakes which he has learned from and with conditions in place that are being suggested he can manage the premises in a way that the licence objectives can be achieved.”

The conditions imposed on the licence are that the shop must operate a “Challenge 25” alcohol sales policy, that staff must be given robust training, that a written record of any refusals to sell to customers must be kept, and that the CCTV system must be kept in working order and tapes should be stored.

Mr Khushdil has the right to appeal the decision.