7 Star Food and Wine shop in Glenpark Road tested by teen twins who bought booze without being challenged for ID
A teen was able to buy WKD Blue in an undercover trading standards operation.(Image: Tower Hamlets Council )
A convenience shop in Birmingham was caught selling alcohol to a child in an undercover operation.
The 7 Star Food and Wine shop in Glenpark Road in Alum Rock sold booze to an underage teenager in an operation organised by Birmingham trading standards department.
Concerns were raised about the shop, prompting the visit with two 16-year-olds in January.
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The council used twins – a boy and girl – to see if the shop would challenge them when they tried to buy alcohol.
Just after 11am on January 2, trading standards enforcement officer, Paul Ellson entered the shop, where a man was serving behind the till.
Then the two 16-year-olds went in, picked up a bottle of WKD Blue and went to the till.
The girl was sold the bottle without being asked for identification, despite the shop displaying a ‘No ID no sale’ sign.
The girl and her brother left with the trading standards officer.
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Mr Ellson and a colleague returned to the shop and explained the test sale.
The shopworker named the owner of the business as an Amjeet Singh, who was both the premises licence holder and designated premises supervisor.
He could not find the ‘refusals register’ showing when those underage were not allowed to buy alcohol when asked but Trading Standards said ‘the till prompt appeared to be working’.
In addition, the worker did not have a personal licence and no-one else at the shop with him had one.
A formal trader’s notice was issued to the shopworker, who was told it was an offence to sell alcohol to minors.
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Trading Standards later submitted an application to Birmingham City Council’s licensing department asking for a review of the premises licence on the ground of ‘protection of children from harm’.
It said it had also received a complaint in June 2023 that the shop was selling vapes and cigarettes to children in school uniform.
The shop was visited by Trading Standards then and warned against selling age-restricted products to minors and told about the procedures needed to avoid making such sales.
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Martin Williams, Birmingham Trading Standards’ chief inspector of weights and measures, said: “There is a concern the person who sold the alcohol had no personal licence and so was not as well trained as he could have been.
“This is a busy neighbourhood shop in a residential street occupying a trusted position within a local community.
“Trading Standards would wish that at least a period of suspension of the licence for all staff serving to be trained better, preferably obtaining personal alcohol licences.
“And procedures improved to avoid sales of alcohol, as well as all other age-restricted products they sell, is likely the minimum recommendation.”
Birmingham City Council’s licensing committee will make a decision at a date yet to be confirmed.
