A SHOP in Newbury might no longer be able to sell alcohol, after the police said people were drinking beer on the pavement outside the shop.

Two people were seen buying cans of Stella Artois lager from Hot News, on Market Street, and then sat outside to drink them.

A licensing officer, who saw the two people, went into the shop and found beer and cider stronger than 5.3 per cent accessible to the public, as well as individual cans and bottles on sale.

Thames Valley Police inspected the shop two days later, and found staff selling alcohol to ‘street drinkers’. PC Simon Wheeler said: “100 per cent of the licence conditions were in breach.”

The shop’s alcohol licence states: “Multi packs of cans or bottles of alcohol shall not be split and sold individually. All alcopop style drinks, beers, lagers or cider of 5.3 per cent alcohol by volume or higher shall be stored in an area to which the public have no access.”

When the police inspected the shop, they found beer and cider stronger than 5.3 per cent was accessible to the public, and single cans of Carlsberg were available to buy, split from the usual plastic rings holding packs together.

Police saw two men ‘of the street drinking community’ go into the shop. One bought three cans of K cider, which is 8 per cent strong, and the three cans had been split from a pack of four. The second man bought a single can of ‘high strength of alcohol’.

Thames Valley Police sent a letter to Herish Abdulrahman Hasan, the licence holder, outlining concerns, and inviting him to a meeting at Newbury Police Station.

PC Wheeler said: “Unfortunately, during the meeting it was confirmed that no effective action had been taken by Mr Hasan to rectify any of the issues that had been outlined.”

The police asked West Berkshire Council to review the shop’s licence, arguing that it undermines the prevention of crime, disorder, public nuisance and public safety.

At a meeting of the council’s licensing committee on March 27, the police said they would argue to revoke the licence. However, the meeting was adjourned due to PC Wheeler being unable to attend.

If the council don’t decide to revoke the licence, the police said they would ask that no beer or cider stronger than 5.3 per cent be sold, no single cans or bottles of beer or cider be sold, and cans or bottles of beer should only be sold in ‘multiples of four’.