A newsagents repeatedly caught selling alcohol to children has had its licence revoked.

Licensing officers caught Park News in Park Road, Brighton, selling wine and beer to underage customers sent in by Sussex Police on four occasions.

Now Brighton and Hove City Council’s licensing panel has cancelled the shop’s drink permit to “protect children from harm”.

Shop co-owner Ajay Suchak was behind the till for all four failed test purchases including the most recent in December.

Plain clothed officers watched Mr Suchak selling wine, beer and cigarettes to underage police cadets without checking their ID.

In October shop records showed there had been only four recorded refusals of alcohol to minors in the last two years.

Officers told of Mr Suchak’s “abysmal” understanding of his legal obligations despite him being given Trading Standards training after first being caught in February 2009.

PC Neil Beaumont said Mr Suchak had accused officers of “picking on him” after his latest offence.

Police meetings

PC Beaumont said: “Mr Suchak has continually displayed a complete disregard for underage sales. He has also attended several meetings with senior police officers to reinforce the requirements placed on him.

“Despite this he has sold to a minor on four separate occasions in the past three years.”

The shop was also in trouble with police for not having proper security cameras.

In November a knife-wielding robber threatened Mr Suchak before escaping empty-handed.

But when investigators asked for video footage they found that the shop’s security cameras had not been working for some time.

A condition of the licence was that the shop had working CCTV to give police technical support.

A council spokeswoman said: “In view of previous breaches of conditions involving CCTV, the apparent failure to maintaining the refusals book and the Challenge 21 policy, the panel has no confidence in the ability of the current management to uphold these conditions.”

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