Bradford Off Licence in Court

On 25^th April 2024, Mrs Nitu Manchanda from Bradford appeared at Bradford Magistrates Court to answer the charge of selling alcohol to a child under the age of 18 at the premises Simply Local – Best One, 2-4 Highfield Road, Bradford, BD2 2AT. Mrs Manchanda pleaded guilty to the offence under the Licensing Act 2003. The Magistrates gave credit to Mrs Manchanda for her early guilty plea and ordered her to pay a fine of £198, a surcharge of £79 and cost of £1000, totalling £1277.

The business was known to West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service with the service having received complaints about the premises selling alcohol to underage children.

In December 2022, a 15 year old volunteer entered the shop, under the supervision of a Trading Standards Officer and attempted to purchase alcohol. He was able to purchase a can of Strongbow Dark Fruits cider 4% ABV for £1.50, without being challenged about his age or asked to provide identification to prove his age. It is an offence to sell alcohol to a person under the age of 18.

Mrs Manchanda was interviewed at a later date to discuss the sale. During the interview Mrs Manchanda said that it was a family friend that made the sale of alcohol to the child volunteer as she had asked them to cover the till whilst she was busy elsewhere in the shop. Mrs Manchanda said that this person was not an employee and therefore had received no training regarding age restricted products. Because of this Mrs Manchanda took full responsibility for the sale occurring.

David Strover, Trading Standards Manager  -  Business Services Team said, “we wrote to this business to make them aware of a complaint we had received and informed them a test purchase may follow.  Off licence proprietors need to ensure they ask for identification for all customers who look under 25, as we do make regular test purchases to investigate complaints about underage sales from members of the public.”