Police concerns over Birmingham shop’s blue pills

Plain clothed officers found the tablets along with a number of packets of Kamagra ‘Oral Jelly’ – used to treat erectile dysfunction – at The Corner Shop on Horse Fair in Birmingham city centre.

The shop, previously called 24/7 Convenience Express, had bid to sell booze up to 4am every day but has been now denied by Birmingham City Council licensing chiefs.

West Midlands Police objected saying the applicant Mansour Taleghan was too closely connected with the operator Rahmat Hassanpoor, who had his licence stripped by the council in October when illicit cigarettes were found in a briefcase at the store.

Mr Hassanpoor had denied knowledge of the case even though the combination lock appeared to be his wife’s date of birth, officers said.

Concerned over the latest attempt to sell alcohol the police visited the shop on Wednesday, December 11 where they found multiple storage rooms containing bottles and cans of booze.

Pc Ben Reader confirmed he found the blue pills and sachets of oral jelly in a metal cigar tin stating they appeared to be from India and were to be sold on prescription only.

Mr Taleghan claimed he had come to a private agreement with Mr Hassanpour to make monthly payments to cover the value of the stock left behind.

But neither police nor the council were convinced.

A licensing sub committee met on Thursday, December 19 where they formally refused the application.

Their decision notice said: “The sub-committee’s reasons for refusing this application for a premises licence are due to concerns expressed by West Midlands Police regarding the impact of the proposed operation on the particular locality of the premises.

“Two police officers attended the meeting and addressed the sub-committee in detail about their concerns.

“Their overwhelming concern was that there was a connection between the applicant and the previous operator; this had been confirmed in an email sent to police by the previous operator’s wife.

“Moreover the business had not been transferred formally, for example via a sale; instead, it appeared that the applicant had simply agreed to pay a monthly amount to cover the value of stock, giving the previous operator an ongoing financial interest in the shop.”

It added: “The police confirmed that on a recent visit, they had discovered a large quantity of bottles of alcohol stored at the back of the premises.

“This stock of alcohol had not been locked away or stored securely, but had simply been placed in shopping trolleys; this did not inspire confidence in the applicant’s management style.

“Additionally, the police had concerns about some of the items that they observed being offered for sale, for example ‘blue pills’ and ‘oral jelly’, both of uncertain provenance.”