A new store in Weston-super-Mare has been told it will not be allowed to sell alcohol because of the owner’s previous involvement with a shop where illegal vapes were allegedly hidden behind boxes of sweets
Baker Street Mini Mart opened in November and owner Karwan Rafiq applied to North Somerset Council for a licence to sell alcohol. But the council’s licensing subcommittee ruled on January 28 that it would not grant the licence, after council trading standards officer Jay Capel warned Mr Rafiq’s previous involvement at another shop in the town showed he “does not have the correct priorities.”
She said: “He has put profit before the health and safety of his customers and the community.”
The police also urged the council not to grant the licence, with Police licensing officer Andy Jones telling the hearing: “The police, considering all the facts including a site meeting with the applicant and previous business history, have no confidence that Mr Rafiq will uphold the licensing objectives correctly and is not a suitable person to hold a premises licence.”
Mix Store on Meadow Street — just down the road from the new premises — was stripped of its licence in July 2024 after an inspection where Ms Capel said over a hundred illegal vapes were hidden behind boxes of sweets, along with other issues such as food not labelled in English and “smuggled” shisha tobacco. Mr Rafiq was running the store at the time but when that matter was brought before the licensing subcommittee, Mustafa Bestoon attended.
Mr Bestoon told that licensing hearing in July 2024 he did not know anything about the illegal products. He said that he was the owner of Mix Store but had a lease agreement and Mr Rafiq ran the shop, urging the council not to revoke the licence. Ms Capel told that meeting: “This is smoke and mirrors as far as I am concerned.”
At the hearing in January over the application for the Mini Mart, Mr Rafiq insisted he was “under pressure” to take responsibility because he was running the business. He said that the illegal products sold at Mix Stores were those that were already in stock when he took over the running of the business, and some he had purchased from a “white van man” but had been told were legal.
Speaking about Baker Street Mini Mart, he said: “It will be completely different. The new premises is in my name. I’m responsible. I know what we get, no-one else.”
Asked if Mr Bestoon would have any involvement with the new shop, Mr Rafiq said: “He’s got nothing to do with it.”
But senior licensing officer Kellie Trego told the subcommittee she had seen Mr Bestoon inside the new premises painting as it was being refitted. Mr Rafiq insisted he had not been there and they were not friends.
But the licensing subcommittee panel were not convinced. The chair, councillor Stuart Davies, told Mr Rafiq: “We are going to refuse the application. And the reason we are refusing this application at this time is we feel you as a DPS [designated premises supervisor] have a track record of inconsistency. There seems to be a lack of knowledge of procedures and responsibilities of you as a DPS.”
He added: “The other thing we do have is a suspicion that the dissociation with your previous business partner is not as clear cut as you have said it is.
Mr Davies said: “The last thing we want to do is to stop your business being successful. But we do have a responsibility to make a decision based on the information in front of us and that’s what we have done.”
The decision means the shop will not be able to sell alcohol, but it can continue to sell other products — including legal tobacco and vapes, as the sale of these is not a licensable activity.
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