Shop licence under review after alcohol ‘sold to 11-year-old’

A shop in Nelson which reportedly served alcohol to an 11-year-old boy could have its licence suspended over the “damning” incident.

The boy’s parents alerted Caerphilly County Borough Council’s trading standards team, which found a litany of “further concerns about the management” of Village Stores, on High Street.

The police and health board have backed calls for the licence to be suspended, effectively preventing any sales of alcohol for a period of up to three months.

A representative for premises licence holder Nirojan Thavarasa said the shopkeeper acknowledged the seriousness of the incident and had agreed to implement licence improvements.

At a meeting of the council’s licensing committee, on Wednesday August 5, trading standards officer Rhian Cross asked members to consider “a serious incident involving the sale of alcohol to an 11-year-old child”.

She said the boy’s parents went to the shop to challenge the member of staff involved, but claimed the employee reportedly “didn’t know the legal age” for selling alcohol.

Later trading standards visits to Village Stores uncovered problems with accessing CCTV, training logs and records of underage sale refusals, Ms Cross said.

This was compounded by Mr Thavarasa seemingly being out of the country – and when he returned, Ms Cross described his “failure to cooperate” with her team’s investigation of the June 2025 incident.

She added the sale of alcohol to under-18s was also a criminal offence, but those proceedings had been complicated due to difficulties tracking down the former staff member involved.

Mr Thavarasa had provided a “due diligence” defence, so the criminal investigation had “come to a halt”, the committee heard.

Gwent Police officer John Taylor said the force supported the call for a licence review, adding CCTV footage of the incident – which was shown to the committee privately – was “quite damning”, leaving him with “no confidence at the moment that Mr Thavarasa has promoted [the council’s] licensing objectives”.

The committee also heard from Simon Hodsdon, head of public health at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.

He said the incident was “particularly concerning because of the young age of the child”, and alcohol use could affect “body and brain development” – as well as its links to other harmful behaviours.

Council licensing officer Sandra Lewis-Williams suggested the recommended suspension of the shop’s licence could give Mr Thavarasa time to implement the correct measures and procedures, including training for staff.

Macie Channing, representing Mr Thavarasa, said the shopkeeper had appointed a new premises licence holder, and had agreed to new licence conditions proposed by the police and council.

“We acknowledge the wide concerns that exist,” she said. “The licence holder does recognise the seriousness of the incident, and we do not seek to minimise those at all.”

She said it was Mr Thavarasa’s assertion that age verification was in place at the time of the incident, but the then-employee “did not follow what they were trained to do”.

“We’re not using this as an excuse – this was a major error,” Ms Channing added.

The committee retired to consider the case, and will issue its decision within five working days.