THE WEYMOUTH business which police and trading standards raided several times has had its Premises Licence revoked.

The decision will mean the Weymouth Market in King Street, which previous traded as the Polish Deli’, will not be able to sell alcohol.

The licence had already been suspended because of a failure to pay the annual fee and the business not having a named Designated Premises Supervisor.

A licensing panel hearing earlier this month heard that thousands of cigarettes, where it was claimed UK duty had not been paid, had been seized from the building, together with rolling tobacco, vapes which did not comply with UK legislation and nitrous oxide cannisters.

Dorset Police had asked for a review of the licence on the grounds that the premises is involved in criminal activity with the sale and storage of smuggled tobacco.

Test purchases by juveniles on behalf of Dorset Trading Standards found the shop staff repeatedly selling cigarettes without the necessary checks.

The licensing hearing was told that the department’s biggest ever single seizure of cigarettes and tobacco had come from their visits, with police, to the premises.

No one from the shop, nor the premises licence holder, Ranya D Limited, appeared at the hearing.

The company still has the right of appeal against the decision to Weymouth Magistrates Court by the first week in June.

Said the summary from the Dorset Council licensing sub committee, chaired by Cllr Jon Andrews: “The sub-Ccommittee was satisfied that significant criminal activity was taking place at the premises namely the hidden storage of tobacco and cigarettes which had not been subject to UK duty, their potential sale and the underage sales of tobacco products…

“The sub-committee was particularly concerned that on each of the three visits by Dorset Police, Dorset Council Trading Standards and/or HMRC the quantity of smuggled tobacco products and vapes in excess of the legal limit found had increased.  As a result, the sub-committee was concerned that if alcohol was to be licensed again at the premises, alcohol would be sold which had not been subject to UK duty.

“The sub-committee was also particularly disturbed to hear that the premises had failed underage test purchases.  As a result, they considered that the shop was not being run to a satisfactory standard and that there was a real risk that underage alcohol sales would take place if the Premises Licence remained in place.

“The sub-committee was also concerned that the person in charge of the premises was different on each occasion that the law enforcement authorities had visited, that they had all denied any knowledge of the smuggled tobacco and the careful and organised way in which the tobacco had been concealed.”

A Trading Standards investigation against the King Street business is ongoing.

Test purchases in February 2023 when tobacco products were sold to children led to another visit by the police and trading standards officers later in the month when 12,500 packs of cigarettes were seized along with 100kg of hand rolling tobacco and over 1,000 illegal vapes, as well as nitrous oxide cannisters, commonly known as ‘laughing gas.’