A SWINDON shop worker has blamed his fasting during Ramadan for selling booze to a youth.

Bhatia Stores in Crombey Street were pulled before a licensing panel to explain themselves after a Trading Standards operation on August 21, last year.

Store assistant Nisar Khan said he had not been concentrating as it was the beginning of the Islamic fasting month when he served a 16-year-old test purchaser a Barcardi Breezer.

He did not ask for identification, believing the girl was 19 or 20, the licensing panel heard.

In a statement, Mr Khan said: “I always ask for ID. But just an hour before the incident my brother phoned to tell me that my father had been taken to hospital.

“Also August 22, 2009, was the beginning of Ramadan so I was not concentrating as I served the girl.

“I just did a quick glance as these thoughts were hitting the back of my head. I am really sorry for the misunderstanding and my employer is not really to blame.”

The shop just outside Swindon town centre is owned by Sadrudin and Sonia Bhatia. The couple appeared at the Civic Offices at Swindon Council to explain the breach on Wednesday afternoon.

In a statement issued by Bhatia Stores, it said: “Mr Khan was only part time, doing up to six hours a day with two hours, between 5pm and 7pm, on his own when Mr and Mrs Bhatia both have time at home for a family meal.

“It was of course during that short period that the test purchase was made.”

It went on: “Mr Khan on that day had nothing to eat and had indeed been up since 4.30am, it being the first day of Ramadan. He’d also had a phone call from Pakistan as his father’s diabetes had worsened and he had been taken to hospital.

“None of this excuses what happened, but it does hopefully put the incident into context of an isolated breach and not a symptom of unsupervised and reckless training.”

The shop turns over up to £5,000 a week and about 60 percent of its sales are from alcohol.

It has a premises licence allowing the sale of alcohol between 8am and midnight on every day of the week.

Challenge 21 posters are now displayed and a refusal book is kept up to date.

The panel took an hour to rule the shop should be banned from serving alcohol for two weeks. The ban will come into effect 21 days after the hearing.

In that time the shop may appeal the decision via the Swindon Magistrates’ Court.