An off licence in Easton has been banned from selling alcohol after police found stolen goods worth £50,000. Shoplifters were “looting” bottles of wines and spirits from nearby supermarkets, which police then later discovered on shelves of the Whitehall Easton shop on the High Street.

The shop has now had its premises licence revoked, after Avon and Somerset Police convinced councillors at Bristol City Council that its managers were creating a “risk to public safety”. Officers said thieves in the area were “doing anything they can to get money” with which to buy Class A drugs.

Shakeel Ahmad Qureshi, the premises licence holder, told a licensing hearing on Thursday, March 28, that he was unaware of the stolen goods which police found in his shop. He claimed they were bought from thieves by a member of staff who no longer works at Whitehall Easton.

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Neighbourhood constable Ben Fielding said: “The single biggest issue in the community is shop theft. Shops were seeing over £1,000 of losses a week, chiefly wine, chocolate and those kinds of goods. On the Church Road corridor in particular, there are two Tescos, two Co-ops, one Lidl and one Aldi. Each one experienced over £1,000 of losses, solely from shop theft, per week.”

Bottles of wine found in Whitehall Easton in January matched those stolen from nearby supermarkets, including brands and names of wine, some of which even had names of the supermarket on the label. Police arrested three men but haven’t issued charges, and investigations are ongoing.

PC Fielding added: “The people doing these crimes, we engage with them and they speak to us. They are vulnerable people who are doing anything they can to get money in order to buy Class A drugs, and that’s the reality of it. They’re buying drugs from the ready cash that they’re getting from committing shop thefts.

“In the weeks following the seizure and arrests, I’ve gone back to engage with those businesses once again. Their losses have gone from over £1,000 a week to under £100, in the space of a month. They’re seeing their shelves full of wine and chocolate as they should be, and not looted.”

Illegal vapes were also found in the shop, containing enough liquid for up to 4,000 puffs each. The legal limit is 600 puffs.

The licensing hearing was told the stolen goods were purchased by a “rogue operator” working at the shop at the time, who no longer works there. Mr Qureshi said he was unaware of the issue, and had taken “two or three months” away from the shop. He added he occasionally went into the building, but did not go into a backroom, so had not spotted the stolen bottles of wine.

Mr Qureshi said: “I wasn’t going into the store all the time. I didn’t check it. I went into the store but not into the back. I was shocked when the police called me, and I went there and I saw the things. All the bottles were in the back and I never saw them. They were not on the shelves.”

This was disputed by the police, who said they found stolen bottles of wine for sale on the shelves during the raid in January. Councillors on the licensing sub-committee voted to revoke the shop’s premises licence, meaning that it will no longer be allowed to sell alcohol.