Boston Store Alcohol Licence Revoked

The Alcohol Licensing Department from Lincolnshire Police submitted paperwork for a Licence Review Hearing due to ongoing problems with Boston Corner Shop, West Street, continually selling foreign labelled medicines over a two year period.

On Thursday 22th January 2015 a hearing was held in front of the Boston District Council Licensing Sub-Committee. After hearing all the evidence they agreed with the police that the premises had been actively involved in the illegal sale of foreign labelled medicines. Because of this they believed they were failing to promote the licensing objectives and their Licence was revoked. The Committee also removed Mr Martynas Ginevicius from holding the position of Designated Premises Supervisor, as they had no confidence in his ability to perform this role.

There is a 21 day appeal process; if no appeal is submitted then the revocation comes into action.

Over a two year period the store were visited in joint operations by Lincolnshire Police and the Medicines and HealthCare Products Regulatory Agency on three occasions. On every visit they were found to be selling Foreign Labelled Medicines. Despite the best efforts of both agencies to educate the premises to the dangers of selling medicines in this way, they continued to stock and sell these products.

Sergeant Kim Enderby from Lincolnshire Police’s Alcohol Licensing Department said, “This is an excellent result, justifying the hard work of all the agencies involved. Hopefully it sends a strong message to those involved in criminality of this type. Selling foreign labelled medicines is a criminal offence and presents a real danger to members of the local community. Whether you are English and unable to read Latvian instructions or Polish unable to do the same, the risk is to everyone . Particularly worrying was that this store was stocking prescription only medicines, which would normally only be available from a Chemist. These medicines are stronger and liable to have more dangerous side effects, hence they are controlled by stricter regulations. Repeated attempts to work with the store to educate them to the inherent dangers of this activity failed and left us with no choice but seek to review the Premises Licence. We remain committed to the disruption, investigation and prosecution of all criminal behaviour being conducted on our Licensed Premises”.