A SHOPKEEPER is to have his licence reviewed by the council today for allegedly selling smuggled booze.

Mohamed Meeran Hussain, who holds the premises licence for VK Stores, in Cricklade Road, is due to appear before a committee this afternoon.

Customs officers seized 31 bottles of vodka and brandy from the store in February due to concerns over the authenticity of duty marks.

An invoice for the bottles was found to have a false VAT number, telephone number and address.

But when officers tried to contact Mr Hussain to discuss their concerns they found he was out of the country.

It is the third time the shop has been the subject of a licence review – the previous times were for selling alcohol to children.

Russell Sharland, the licensing investigation and case manager at Swindon Council, emphasised the importance of licence holders being responsible in the sale of alcohol because of its impact on the wider community, in crime and disorder and anti-social behaviour.

He said: “Given this is the third review of this particular premises’ licence, the authority is concerned that Mr Hussain is failing to fulfil his obligations.”

He said the committee could decided to change the person responsible for the licence at the shop and suspend the licence for a period to allow the changeover to take place.

He said concerns had been raised in the past about Mr Hussain’s ability to manage two different premises at the same time – he also has a shop in County Road.

On February 2 officers from HMRC met Mr Hussain at the shop and when they examined his stock they found that the duty stamps did not fluoresce, the labels were peeling off, revealing another label underneath and they were of poor quality.

They took 19 bottles of Smirnoff Vodka and 12 bottles of Papu’s Brandy away and asked Mr Hussain to send them the invoices for them.

But when he sent them the invoice it was unsigned, the VAT number did not exist and the phone number and address were wrong.

When the officers tried to contact Mr Hussain they were repeatedly told he was in India and it was not known when he would be back.

Mr Hussain told the Adver that he had not done anything wrong and he would explain everything during today’s hearing.