Ealing Council have decided to revoke the license of The Best Wine in Hanwell after finding various breaches of licensing objectives and conditions.

These include: the presence of strong alcohol on the premises, failure to provide CCTV footage when requested and the discovery of counterfeit cigarettes.

The Best Wine on Uxbridge Road has been licensed under Pritpal Singh Madhan since 2014 while the store has been an Off License in Hanwell for 60 years.

Abbi Shaw, Safer Communities Team Leader and Bob Dear of the council's Licensing Compliance & Enforcement Team revoked the premises licence.

Chair of the hearing Cllr Anthony Kelly said the panel "had no choice" but to take away the shop's ability to sell alcohol.

Before the final decision, Mr Madhan pleaded with the council to give him "one last chance."

The Best Wine displays a sign in store refusing the sale of alcohol to street drinkers (image via Rory Bennett/LDRS).

In front of the committee, Mr Madhan admitted he had made mistakes by storing strong beer on shelves and fridges in The Best Wine but said that it was only there temporarily before being moved onto another shop he owned in Southall.

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However, Mr Dear contested that the owner knew what he was doing and had hidden drinks with a higher percentage of alcohol behind cans of weaker booze to dupe inspectors.

Mr Dear was also the council officer who discovered five packs of counterfeit cigarettes behind the counter of the premises.

Mr Madhan claimed that he was only storing the duty-free cigarettes for friend in The Best Wine and not selling them.

The lack of CCTV footage provided to the panel was also a concern and broke the conditions of the shop's licence.

Mr Madhan said that when police and council representatives had come to inspect the business as part of regular enforcement in the area, the screen showing the feed of the CCTV was broken but the cameras were still recording.

Despite the plea, Cllr Kelly told Mr Madhan: "We are here today without CCTV so for all intents and purposes it has not worked."

Notice of Application to Review License of a shop in Hanwell (image via Rory Bennett/LDRS).

During the hearing, the panel also mentioned that Mr Dear and Mr Shaw saw Mr Madhan and his employee's selling alcohol to drunk customers.

Mr Madhan responded that it is not always easy to tell from behind the counter who is drunk and who isn't and insisted that The Best Wine getting its licence taken away would not prevent street drinking, stating "they can it [alcohol] from anywhere."

Mr Madhan's brother told LDRS ahead of the review that he had been assaulted by street drinkers who grew violent when refused service.

"He said 'why won't you serve me?' and said I would not serve him and he punched me", the brother explained.

Mr Madhan reiterated this point in the meeting, but it seemed to un affect the licensing committee's stance on his license removal.

While delivering the panel's verdict Cllr Kelly said that it recognised the difficulties of operating an Off Licence in Hanwell in the context of issues surrounding anti-social behaviour. However, it seemed that the conclusions of the three councillors on the panel Cllr Kelly, Cllr Jon Ball and Cllr Raveen Anand agreed with what Ms Shaw had iterated earlier in the meeting – The Best Wine has helped increase anti-social behaviour in the area.