A SHOP caught selling alcohol to children twice in two weeks has been allowed to keep its licence.

The Happy Shopper, in New Front Street, Tanfield, failed two test purchases organised by Durham County Council’s trading standards team last year.

This included a member of staff selling wine to a 16-year-old and 15-year-old on December 13 and 21 respectively.

The matter was brought to Durham County Hall for a licence review earlier this week.

Council licensing officers said the test purchase failures undermined licensing objectives, namely protecting children from harm.

Durham Constabulary, backing the review, also raised concerns about alcohol-fuelled antisocial behaviour in the village.

Jaswinder Kaur Mehat, the premises licence holder and designated premises supervisor (DPS), served alcohol during both tests last year.

But solicitor Matthew Foster, representing Kaur Mehat at the hearing, said she was “distracted” at the time over news that her father in India was seriously ill.

Other outstanding issues included the shop operating a ‘challenge 18’ policy and a lack of up to date training.

Mr Foster told the hearing: “Jaswinder finds herself in a much better position now emotionally and has went over to see her father and is coping better with that, concentration levels therefore are better than they were before.

“She’s operated the premises for about 20 years without issue, obviously we have had the recent issues but our understanding is that there are no further issues with these premises.

“You will be aware quite a long period of time has passed since these test purchases were carried out.”

Following the trading standards sting, a raft of changes were introduced at the store to upskill staff and introduce “best practice.”

This included new CCTV, a ‘challenge 25’ policy and plans to introduce an electronic point of sale system (EPOS) which prompts staff to check ages on the till.

Training from TJR Licensing aims to address drunkenness, fake identification and the sale all age-related items – from razors to lighters.

Additionally, Kaur Mehat’s son will also take on the DPS role at the store with regular test purchases carried out by a external firm ‘Serve Legal’.

Following assurances that the business had beefed up its training regime, licensing bosses said they were happy for the shop to continue selling alcohol.

Chairwoman of the council’s statutory licensing sub-committee, Councillor Linda Marshall, delivered the verdict.

She said: “We haven’t underestimated the severity of what has happened and we take underage drinking very very seriously.

“I think especially for the family it’s a lesson learned and we have decided to keep the licence with the proposed conditions.”

Amended conditions for the alcohol licence were also agreed by licensing bosses.

This includes the EPOS system being introduced within 28 days and all independent test purchases being made available on request.