Bedminster shop with illicit tobacco branded a ‘centre for criminality’

Police have branded a south Bristol high street shop a “centre for criminality” attracting high-ranking members of organised crime.

International Zabka, in East Street, Bedminster, was shut by magistrates for three months earlier in October for selling illegal tobacco following a trading standards investigation.

Now councillors have revoked its premises licence to sell alcohol after the court order automatically triggered a review hearing.

Police told Bristol City Council licensing sub-committee that the convenience store was “fuelling” the area’s street-drinking problem by selling high-strength beer and cider – which its licence conditions prohibit – cheaply.

Officers seized booze worth “thousands and thousands” of pounds, including more than 300 bottles of spirits believed to have evaded duty payments, and illicit tobacco hidden behind “professionally” disguised panelling in the stock room during a routine visit last December, the hearing was told.

More suspicious activity, including staff being paid in cash, £5,000 in banknotes being handed over between two men in an uninsured car on the pavement outside and a known organised crime gang member identified entering the shop, led to a subsequent raid and another 400 alcoholic drinks being confiscated, members heard.

But every time police seized booze, the stock was soon re-filled and illicit alcohol went on sale again, while repeated warnings by trading standards about illegal tobacco also went unheeded despite a number of prosecutions dating back to 2016, the sub-committee was told on Thursday, October 28.

Avon & Somerset police licensing officer Louise Mowbray said: “We believe this premises is a centre for criminality.

“It is adding to the issues on East Street with street drinking.

“Trading standards have continually gone in for test purchases of tobacco.

“We’ve seized thousands and thousands of pounds worth of stock and it makes no difference.

“The only real solution is for the revocation of the licence.”

She said other authorities, including immigration and HM Revenue & Customs, had been notified of the police’s suspicions and there were “ongoing investigations linked to this shop”.

The officer said that during the routine licence check in December 2020, police found a “substantial deposit of tobacco hidden behind sliding panels which raised our concerns as to what else was going on in the shop”.

“A number of people scattered and left the shop very quickly,” she said.

“We found illicit tobacco under the counter and a large amount of alcohol that we were concerned had not been duty-paid.

“Staff couldn’t produce any invoices or provide details of where this alcohol was coming from.

“So we seized over 1,000 packets of tobacco, over 300 bottles of spirits and 35 pouches of tobacco.

“No one took responsibility for being in charge. Staff were paid in cash. It was all very underhand.”

Neighbourhood beat manager PC Greg Olszewski told councillors: “There were a lot of activities involving this shop that we normally don’t see.

“On one occasion a man went into the shop from a car, which had no insurance, who we later found out was quite a high-ranking organised crime group member, so he may have come to the shop to buy chewing gum or maybe he was doing business.

“This shop is attracting a lot of people who normally wouldn’t come to our patch who are involved in criminality.

“That puts a lot of demand on us as a police team.”

PC Olszewski said street-drinking and parking problems in East Street were a “constant drain” on police resources.

“But having been to the shop last December we started thinking this is the place that is fuelling our problems because people can buy cheap cigarettes and alcohol from here, so perhaps we should start tackling shops like that because it’s the source or our problems,” he said.

Bristol City Council trading standards team leader Sarah Saunders said: “International Zabka has been subject to ongoing action by trading standards over a number of years.

“We have tried to take proactive, traditional action to prevent the sale of tobacco, which is prosecution.”

Ms Saunders said a previous licence holder had been convicted of selling illegal tobacco and the licence was then transferred to Salar Haji, who is named as the premises licence holder and designated premises supervisor but denies any involvement in the business and lives in London.

She said Saman Haji, of Peterborough, believed to be a relative, was at the shop when trading standards issued a 48-hour closure order in September, ahead of the Bristol magistrates’ court hearing, and told trading standards he ran the business.

Neither men attended Thursday’s City Hall hearing.