A corner shop will no longer be able to sell alcohol after repeated licence violations culminated in staff allegedly beating a shoplifter with a metal pole.

The owners of Aces Express in Spital Street, Dartford, say the ban could force them to close but councillors and the police said they have a “blatant disregard” for the rules.

In July, Kent Police put an application to Dartford council to review the shop’s licence.

It was discussed at a meeting of the local authority’s licensing sub-committee last Thursday (September 12).

PC Andre Smuts said the force called for the review after a call to the police on May 22 when a man could be heard “shouting to be let out of the shop” and that he was “being hit with a metal pole”.

PC Smuts added: “The police patrol attended and determined that the male shoplifter had been detained by the staff for stealing bottles of wine.

“The staff member was alleged to have assaulted him with a metal pole during the incident.”

Police later attempted to speak to shop bosses about the incident - husband and wife Ranjeev Thapar and Kay Kaur.

However, PC Smuts said Mrs Kaur was unfazed by the reports of her staff using force.

“When I expressed concerns that the metal pole was being used she said ‘what, to protect themselves?’ It seemed as if she was condoning their actions,” he said.

PC Smuts said it took “two weeks of continued hounding the premises” to get CCTV footage of the incident - but when they received it, some parts were missing.

“The missing footage clearly shows some scuffle happening or some fight, it was really relevant footage and unfortunately that was missing,” he said.

He said the staff “Can be seen to hold a pole over his shoulder threatening to hit the male shoplifter with it on several occasions, what can be seen is him threatening to hit the chap – what is missing is footage of any strike or battery.”

It’s my opinion that the CCTV was wiped to prevent any further scrutiny

The shop said they could not provide any more as their CCTV engineer came to reset the password on the unit, and inadvertently had wiped the hard drive.

However, PC Smuts said: “It’s my opinion that the CCTV was wiped to prevent any further scrutiny.”

Mrs Kaur initially told police that it was in fact a foam water soaker, not a pole, the employee was using.

But she later said she thought this because the staff member had lied, and he had since been let go.

In January 2023, police were called to reports of a rape on the bench directly outside the off-licence in clear view of one of their cameras.

The worker present on the night could not operate the CCTV, so the police contacted Mr Thapar for it, but he was “obstructive, rude and very unhelpful” according to PC Smuts, and refused to provide the CCTV.

The police eventually seized the CCTV unit, and retrieved the footage, but due to the quality of the video and a cobweb being in front of the camera, the evidence was unhelpful.

In March this year, a man who had been working at the shop for more than a year was arrested by immigration officials as an “overstayer” illegally working in breach of his visa, and the same happened in 2013.

In both cases no further action has been taken against the shop itself - but Home Office guidance says that licence revocation is a legitimate consideration even after the first instance of employing illegal workers.

Mr Thapar and Mrs Kaur’s lawyer, Tom Orpin-Massey, attended with them to speak on their behalf.

“The business has been licenced since 2012 and there are no previous licence reviews,” he told the panel.

“This whole experience for them has been a salutary lesson, this is their first time before a panel like this.

“Without the licence to sell alcohol the impact to sales would be huge.

“Alcohol at Aces makes up 40-60% of sales, they say the margin on these sales is how they pay their rent, they don’t own that building.”

Without an alcohol licence and facing rent reviews, the business would “very likely cease trading” he insisted.

Mr Orpin-Massey stressed “they are both capable and experienced people in running shops,” and that the owners would be willing to comply with any conditions on training staff to use CCTV.

Their licence already required one member of staff who can use the CCTV to be present at all times, but they say a member of staff once stole a significant amount of money and deleted the CCTV footage - so they no longer train any of them to use the system.

After almost an hour of deliberation, the council’s licensing sub-committee stripped them of their licence to sell alcohol.

Cllr Darren Povey (Lab), chairman, explained: “The licensee has shown a blatant disregard for the licensing conditions in relation to providing CCTV footage to the police.

“The subcommittee has no confidence at this stage that the licensee would adhere to the promotion of the licensing objectives going forward given how uncooperative he’s been in relation to the incidents raised by the police.

“The police have lost faith in the licensee being a responsible operator, which as a result justifies the most draconian step being taken – revocation of the licence – which is usually taken as a last resort.”