New Wolverhampton shop owner promises ‘clean slate’ after grilling from council over links to jailed ex-owner

Wolverhampton Council has given permission to the new owner of Manhattan Supermarket in Thornley Street to sell alcohol again after telling councillors at a hearing he had no ties with a former owner.

Manhattan Supermarket replaced the disgraced Super Mahan shop, which saw its licence revoked in 2019 for selling cigarettes and ‘super-strength’ cider to a 15-year-old and its owner Ahmad Sokhanvar Mahani jailed for selling smuggled cigarettes in 2022.

The council’s licensing committee approved an application by the new owner Mansour Fallahi Taleghani after he told councillors the old owner Ahmad Sokhanvar Mahani would “play no part whatsoever” in the new business.

The hearing was held after the council raised concerns over links between Mr Taleghani and Mr Mahani after the former owner was present during a food safety inspection in August.

The former Super Mahan owner Ahmad Sokhanvar Mahani was jailed for six months in 2022 over a “long history” of complaints and seizures of illicit tobacco, underage sales and licence breaches over the sale of super-strength alcohol.

Mr Mahani was still registered as director of the new Manhattan Supermarket at the time of the hearing.

The new owner Mr Taleghani said at the licensing hearing that the business would be transferred to him if a licence was granted.

Mr Taleghani had told police that Mr Mahani was a “friend of a friend” and only he and his son would play any role in the business, the hearing heard.

Bal Lehal from West Midlands Police said: “During my conversation [with Mr Taleghani] I discovered that he was from Birmingham and had another premises for which he was the licence holder and he said to me I could ask if he had had any problems.

"I wanted to know if he had any connections to the ex-licence owner to which he replied: ‘no, he would have no connection to my business'.”

At the licensing hearing in Wolverhampton on October 10, Rob Edge, representing Mr Taleghani, said the new shop owner was “fully aware of the history of the premises” and asked to be judged on his own merits rather than the previous owner’s actions.

The original application asked for permission to sell alcohol daily from 8am to midnight but was revised to 10am to 10pm every day following talks with West Midlands Police and Wolverhampton Council.

Manhattan Supermarket was registered as a new business in October last year with Fattaneh Asghari replaced as director by the shamed Ahmad Sokhanvar Mahani in March this year.

The registered business address was changed from the shop’s address at 31 Thornley Street to the city’s Imex Business Park in June.

The council said the involvement of Mr Mahani, who owned the shop in 2019 when its licence was revoked over the sale of illegal cigarettes and tobacco, needed clarifying “at the very least” before a decision could be made on the new licence.

The council said former owner Mr Mahani was present at the Thornley Street shop during a food safety inspection in August, where Mansour Fallahi Taleghani is registered as the sole Drinks2Go trader.

Super Mahan had its licence revoked in 2019 after a pack of smuggled cigarettes and a can of super-strength cider was sold to a 15-year-old girl during a council sting in 2019.

More illegal cigarettes were found stashed away when staff returned to discuss the underage sale with the shop owner later that afternoon.

In separate searches carried out over several months, police and trading standards officers found nearly 900 illegal cigarettes, 200g of foreign labelled rolling tobacco and Subutex tablets, a class C controlled drug used to treat opioid addiction.

Super Mahan was also ordered to close for three months by magistrates in October this year after police found class A drugs alongside illegal tobacco, vapes and alcohol at the unlicensed shop during a summer raid.

Alcohol was found hidden on shelves when police made a return visit just months later.

Three people were arrested and then bailed while investigations continued.