A store in Bolton has failed once again to regain a licence to sell alcohol – because the council believed there was a connection between the applicant and the previous owner.

Farnworth Mini Market on Higher Market Street lost its permission to sell alcohol earlier this year following the discovery of illicit tobacco and other illegal items.

It made an attempt to regain the licence in March but this was rejected.

Now the store has made a fresh effort to regain a licence to sell alcohol, which has once again been rejected by the council's licencing committee.

The store was previously owned by Bashir Khalil.

However, a man named Mr Osman came forward to apply for the licence, but the committee found no evidence that the store had been sold to him.

The hearing was told the store had many features in place to sell alcohol safely.

These included an effective CCTV system, a written delegation of people with authority in the shop, staff training on the Licencing Act, an incident book, a challenge 25 scheme and a notice asking customers to leave quietly.

However objections were raised to the prospect of them regaining a licence.

These included the sale of illegal cigarettes, the previous licence being revoked and the applicant being inexperienced going into a problem premise.

It also heard there was one bank transaction which was meant to show the sale did not show who the payment as made by and there was no other legal documentation demonstrating a sale.

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It also heard Mr Osman had been in court for a common assault case.

A police officer said there had been a number of different applications since the licence was revoked, and added there were concerns that the premise was associated with illegal activity.

The committee ruled there were “not convinced that there was no connection between Mr Osman and Mr Khalil and they also felt that Mr Khalil would still have involvement with the premises even if the licence was granted".

The application was refused.