A shop owner who narrowly avoided losing his alcohol licence earlier this year will be allowed to sell strong booze to street drinkers again.

Rajakumar Sinnathurai, who owns C&S News in Margate, was banned from selling high strength beer and cider above 7% or selling alcohol in single units.

As part of conditions applied to his licence in April 2018, the shop keeper also had to keep spirits behind the counter and not serve intoxicated street drinkers.

But Thanet District Council's licensing sub-committee has agreed to remove the conditions following an application by Mr Sinnathurai.

This is despite a warning by police citing ‘real concerns’ in how the shop in the high street is being run.

However the licensing committee found there was not enough evidence to support the claim.

"We are not satisfied that there is any evidence currently before this sub-committee which is capable of supporting the notion that any of the licensing objectives could or would be prejudiced if this application were to be granted.

'We have no specific evidence that this particular premises is facilitating problems of street drinking and anti-social behaviour ' - licensing committee

"We acknowledge that there are problems relating to street drinking and anti-social behaviour affecting the high street area of Margate.

"However, we have no specific evidence before us that this particular premises is facilitating those problems or indicating that the premises is being operated in a way which could be described as being prejudicial to any of the licensing objectives.

"We also note there is a distinct inequity between the conditions on this premise licence as compared with those which apply to other, similar, premises in the immediate vicinity."

In a report to the council ahead of last week’s hearing, Kent Police made a statement urging the licensing committee to keep the conditions in place.

Chief Inspector Lara Connor, who is based at Margate Police Station, claims Mr Sinnathurai only wants them removed so he can “cater for the street drinking population” and that he “puts profit before any of the licensing objectives”.

'The whole area is having issues with intoxicated street drinkers intimidating members of the public' - Chief Inspector Lara Connor

Commenting on the condition about selling high strength booze, Chief Insp Connor wrote: “He has received warning letters from both the council licensing and police licensing in regards to this as on several occasions officers have attended and found him ignoring this condition.”

She also raised concerns about serving intoxicated people.

“Kent Police would like this condition to remain. The whole area is having issues with intoxicated street drinkers intimidating members of the public.

“This condition is more specific to the offence of serving someone who is drunk so would be against the law anyway. The premises were previously taken for review for serving an extremely drunk customer.”

After the hearing, Kent Police would not comment on the outcome.

Mr Sinnathurai was contacted for a comment but did not respond.

In June, the shop keeper was dragged before Thanet council’s licensing committee following an incident in January when an on-duty PCSO filmed a 16-year-old being served at the shop.

Police urged committee members then to remove Mr Sinnathurai’s licence saying he had been handed a series of warnings about breaching conditions.

These included selling individual cans of high strength beer and cider and failing to display spirits behind the counter as well as serving an underage customer.

But councillors voted not to revoke the certificate saying it would not be “fair and proportionate” to scrap Mr Sinnathurai’s licence.

Read more: All the latest news from Thanet