A Tolworth convenience shop has lost its licence after selling booze to teenagers.

Kingston Council revoked the premises licence held by Kingston International Market, in Tolworth Broadway, at a hearing on Tuesday (December 2).

A representative of the shop's licence holder, Erdal Tutuman, told the hearing he had not been able to run the business smoothly as his wife had suffered a brain aneurysm on holiday just months after taking it over.

He said she had since been transferred back to the UK and he had arranged care for her, which meant he could resume full running of the business and make sure no more issues arose.

The review was called by the Metropolitan Police after the business failed three test purchases this year and was found to be in breach of conditions on its licence, which was granted in December 2023.

The hearing heard the shop sold a bottle of vodka to a 17-year-old volunteer in April, while staff again sold booze to a 17-year-old in July and told another underage volunteer it would sell them alcohol if they returned with enough cash.

The police found multiple breaches of the licence during an inspection of the shop in September, including only keeping CCTV recordings for 26 instead of the required 31 days, a missing incident log and no signs to remind customers to show evidence of their age.

Barrister Gabriel Nelson, representing the Met, said the police deemed revocation of the licence to be "the most suitable remedy".

He said Mr Tutuman had "failed to train his staff on the very basics, to collaborate with the police to resolve the problems and to follow simple conditions on the licence such as possessing an incident log, [which] tells us he is completely incapable of managing the premises properly".

Amy Algar, trading standards officer, said the team was concerned about the shop's "failure to protect children from harm".

She said: "This is evidenced through sales of age-restricted goods to minors and lack of knowledge on age-restricted sales. This business has demonstrated an unacceptable failure to enforce age verification procedures, despite formal warnings and guidance given."

Mr Tutuman's representative said he had held a licence at different venues for more than 20 years with no issues, and that he was now in a position to make sure the shop complied with its conditions since his wife was back in the UK.

He assured the committee the business had taken steps to make sure no underage sales would be made again, including training staff.

He asked the committee to "give us a chance and we can prove that we are responsible and we will serve the community and all the necessary things will be carried out… he is serious about it, now he is completely back here".

But PC Lee Hopkins, licensing officer, said: "I don't think things will change. I think things have been implemented potentially too late, even today's submissions, everything is just disorganised."

The committee decided to revoke the shop's premises licence at the end of the meeting.

The premises licence holder can appeal the decision.

     Kingston International Market submitted a licensing application seeking permission to serve alcohol until 1am back in October of this year.