Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

There were none.

The Licensing Enforcement Officer outlined the procedure for the hearing.

Representations by the applicant:

Seargeant Martin O’Connell explained to Members that on 19^th October at 18:25 an incident occurred at Nene Valley Stores. The assailant, a man who appeared to be working at the shop, followed 2 men from the store after a brief altercation inside and attacked 1 of them with a length of wood that he had retrieved from behind the till. It was noted that prior to this, the man had retrieved a hammer from the same place but exchanged it for the wooden bato[CT1] n before attacking. The Police were alerted to the incident after a call from a member of the public. On arrival the assailant was found mopping up the victim’s blood and the victim was later found at Super Sausage, further along the road. The assailant, who falsely identified himself at the time, was later identified as Chandrakasan Chandrasegaran, a male known to Immigration Services with no right to work in the UK.

Seargeant O’Connell stated that this incident raised 3 issues; there was no reason for Mr Chandrasegaran to follow the men from the store after they left, items that could easily be used as weapons should not have been kept within such easy reach of the till, and a man with no right to work in the UK should not have been working at the shop. He explained that these issues clearly showed that the licensing objectives were not being upheld. He added that even though there was enough evidence to charge the worker with grievous bodily harm, the victim had since made himself scarce so a prosecution seemed unlikely.

In response to questions, Members heard that there was no way to discern the reason for the incident beginning since there was no audio with the CCTV footage, however, a window was broken whilst the 2 men were inside the shop. It was explained that the Police had interviewed the assailant and that he had since appealed his failed asylum decision.

Representations by the respondent:

Patrick Burke, representing the licence holder, stated that his client had held the licence for Nene Valley Stores for 18 months without incident. He also ran another shop in Northampton. On the night of the incident it was explained that Mr Chandrasegaran, who was a friend of a friend, had been staying in the property above the shop for a number of days. He had been asked by the licence holder to close the shop whilst he left to collect his car. He did not, which resulted in the 2 men, both inebriated, entering the shop and the incident taking place. Mr Burke explained that the hammer and wooden baton were left on the shop floor following recent DIY works. He reported that his client was happy to accept the 4 Conditions recommended by the Police and that he had packs that he would pass onto his client to provide staff with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.