Vape shop owner awaits drinks licence verdict

A vape shop owner came under fire for having “drug paraphernalia” on display when he applied for a drinks licence.

Brighton and Hove City Council licensing official Donna Lynsdale told a licensing panel today (Thursday 21 May) that she saw bongs on display in the window of V&M Store, at 62 North Street, Brighton, during a visit two weeks ago.

Ms Lynsdale and PC Andre Bernascone, from Sussex Police, shared concerns about having such items on display and for sale, saying that they did not reflect well on a business seeking an alcohol licence.

At the council licensing panel hearing, three councillors – Ivan Lyons, David McGregor and Sam Parrott – heard that all the drug paraphernalia had been removed.

They were told that it had only been on sale for less than 30 days in response to customer requests.

V&M Store, in the former Flower Burger premises, has applied for a licence to sell alcohol from 10am to 10pm daily.

The business, owned by Satpal Singh, 42, is in an area of Brighton where the council’s policy is to reject applications for new off-licences because the area is saturated with alcohol-led outlets.

Sussex Police and the council licensing team told the panel of three councillors that they did not consider the business to have any exceptional reason to have a licence.

Councillor Lyons asked how many other off-licences were in the area and was told that there were 30 – four in North Street, 18 in Queen’s Road and eight along Western Road.

PC Bernascone said that 1,185 crimes were recorded within a few hundred yards of the shop in the past year, including 516 thefts, 270 incidents of violence, 158 public order offences, 56 drug offences and 19 sexual offences.

Any alcohol bought at the business, PC Bernascone said, could well be drunk on the beach or in the surrounding streets, adding to the area’s problems.

He said: “There are already a high number of (licensed) premises in the area. We do not believe that the applicant has shown exceptional circumstances.”

Mr Singh’s representative, Oisin Daly, of Absolutely Licensing Solutions, said that the business had installed specialist software to carry out checks beyond the usual ones and would include consideration as to whether a customer was intoxicated or a street drinker.

Mr Daly said that these stricter measures, along with ensuring all alcohol was kept behind the counter out of the public’s reach, was exceptional enough to allow sales.

He also offered to end drink sales earlier than in the original application – at 9pm – to reduce any overlap with Brighton’s night-time economy.

He added that drink sales would help the business through a potentially difficult time from October when the government brings in a tax on vapes, increasing costs for legitimate stores, alongside proposals to licence vape sales.

Mr Daly referred to a BBC investigation into illicit vape stores and their links with organised crime, saying that this had created a bad impression for legitimate vape stores such as V&M which had been around for years.

Mr Daly said: “The difficulty come October, and part of the reason for this licence application, is that from a commercial point of view we anticipate that because legitimate vape retailers are going to end up paying £2.20 for one of these bottles to the taxman, those illegitimate stores won’t.

“So they’ll be able to drive down their prices and the legitimate vape stores are going to have to charge a lot more if they’re going to be contributing towards the Treasury.”

Mr Singh has 14 other stores across the country and is also applying for a drinks licence at V&M’s Kingston branch.

The panel retired to make its decision which should be made public within five working days.