Hearing set for Wolverhampton shop owner ‘putting public at risk with illegal goods’

Gurmej Singh, owner of the family-run GSK Liquor Stop in Blakenhall, could lose his licence after he was found selling a cache of illegal products including untaxed cigarettes, beer and vapes as well as banned medicine.

A search at the store earlier this year found more than 200 illegal vapes intended for the US, Indian erectile dysfunction tablets, as well as tonnes of illicit chewing tobacco and hundreds of litres of untaxed beer, wine and spirits. This came after Mr Singh was warned by the council in 2020 over selling untaxed cigars and chewing tobacco.

The council’s licensing sub-committee was due to meet on September 16 to decide whether to revoke the licence but the hearing was postponed at the request of Mr Singh’s solicitors. The hearing will now take place after the council was told Mr Singh was unwell and his solicitors had not been given enough time to prepare for the meeting with the council’s licensers.

Wolverhampton Council had accused Mr Singh of “putting the public at risk” and repeatedly ignoring the law.

Wolverhampton Trading Standards, HMRC, the Home Office and West Midlands Police searched the Dudley Road shop in July this year, confiscating hundreds of vapes and pills, more than 8,000 pints worth of beer, nearly 300 litres of wine, 60 litres of spirits and ten tonnes of chewing tobacco which had no proof of tax.

The search also found banned tablets, labelled as herbal remedies and ‘powerful stimulants’ Multani Kaminividravana Rasa, which contain opioids such as codeine and morphine and other harmful substances and have been linked to addiction cases in Australia and are not regulated in the UK.

It was not the first time that Mr Singh had been caught after a sniffer dog found illegal cigars and chewing tobacco during an inspection of his shop in March 2020. The tobacco products had no proof of duty, English health warnings or standardised packaging. Mr Singh was given a written warning by the council.

A trading standards officer was twice told the shop “needed to make money somewhere” in a redacted report published by the council ahead of the licensing hearing.

Wolverhampton Trading Standards was informed again in 2022 that seven packets of cigarettes intended for sale outside the UK had been purchased from the shop alongside a number of illicit vapes.

Two complaints were made last year that the shop was selling illegal cigarettes and alcohol as well as high-strength vapes and tobacco to children but an underage volunteer was refused the vape during a later sting, the council said.