Owner of Portsmouth corner shop on 'final warning' after police called for licence review

The owner of Danny Mart on Ludlow Road, Mr Nandakumar Vayanaperumal, or ‘Nanda’ was accused of being ‘deliberately obstructive’ with police following an alleged assault of an eight-year-old girl in the shop by a staff member.

After the incident in July, officers said they were ‘met with resistance’ when requesting to see CCTV footage.

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Speaking to the Portsmouth City Council sub-licencing committee Hampshire police licensing officer Colin Pollard said: ‘The PC asked a reasonable request to see CCTV that related to the assault of the child that implicated a staff member.

‘The licence holder’s response was to reiterate his stance that the police never help him so why should he help the police. How can they uphold the prevention of crime and disorder objectives moving forwards and how can any authority engage with them to achieve necessary achievements.

‘Given the lack of confidence the police have in the licence holder to perform his duties as licence holder and designated premises supervisor the police believe it is appropriate and proportionate to revoke the licence.’

Mr Vayanaperumal said that he has always respected and helped the police ‘on many occasions’.

He said: ‘In this particular incident a female staff member, she is not my daughter as some comments suggest, from India who was new to this country and studying at Portsmouth University was working during her summer holidays in July.

‘She grabbed an eight-year-old girl by hand which I would not support, unfortunately, this wasn’t reported to me either by her or by the PCSO.

‘I only had a call on the 17th day after the incident from PCSO asking for footage. I politely told her it may be overwritten as I found the CCTV was only saving up to 14 days at that time - we have now rectified this issue and the CCTV system stores more than 31 days.

‘I’m the only victim here, the people who caused this will have no consequences from this. This is a completely unfair injustice only to me and my loyal shop team.’

Sub-committee members' final decision was to modify the terms of the licence conditions and offer Mr Vayanaperumal a final warning.