Council grants booze licence to shop that sold illegal tobacco

Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter

A booze licence has been granted for a Llandudno shop where illegal tobacco was found in crisp boxes and children were sold “age-restricted products”.

Last week Conwy County Council’s licensing committee met at the authority’s Coed Pella HQ to discuss an application submitted by Nihad Ramazan Abdulrahman for the Cece Mini Market.

The applicant initially sought permission to sell alcohol 24 hours a day, seven days a week, alarming both the NHS and police.

He later changed his application, seeking instead to sell alcohol between 8am and 11pm.

The licence has now been granted, despite concerns being raised that the shop was found to be selling illegal tobacco in December, with further concerns raised following a visit last month.

A spokeswoman for Conwy County Council commented: “The committee granted the licence with reduced hours 08:00 – 23:00, not 24 hrs as requested.

“Conditions were also placed on the licence regarding the prevention of crime and disorder, protection of children, and prevention of nuisance.”

She added: “The applicant and responsible authorities have 21 days to appeal.”

At the initial hearing last week, the council’s trading standards officers said illegal tobacco had been found hidden in crisp boxes on the shop floor and behind the counter before it was seized.

School children

One officer also said children wearing school uniforms had been sold “age-restricted products” by the business at St George’s Place.

Trading standards officers also said the shop didn’t have adequate training in place and claimed staff failed to understand advice following a test-purchase visit in December when the illegal tobacco was first seized.

The officer went on to claim the shop hadn’t learned its lesson when the council carried out a second test-purchase visit last month.

She said: “It was clear that there were no measures in place at the time of the visit, so our concerns are what measures have been put in place to prevent this from happening again.

“Although advice and guidance, both verbal and written, were provided on 2 December 2025, relating to both the sale of age-restricted goods to children and the sale of illegal tobacco, two separate controlled test-purchase attempts for illegal tobacco have been attempted from Cece Mini Market on the last week of February 2026 by officers of the department.

“We regularly carry out market surveillance. During each of the attempts, the officers were both advised separately (by the shop worker) that the only cigarette or tobacco products that were available in the store were the original ones, but that they would have the ‘cheap ones’ next month.

“The person working in the shop made a point of saying, ‘We don’t have the European ones in at the minute,’ and they then reiterated that they would be back in next month.”

The officer then said there were concerns that the business owner and the applicant were “two different people” and that the business owner wasn’t mentioned in the application for the premises licence.

She added: “The business has already shown there were no procedures in place in relation to the sale of age-restricted goods to children, and we have concerns whether that would be reflected with the sale of alcohol, should an alcohol licence be granted; nor were there any procedures relating to the sale of illicit tobacco.”

Prior to application

Representing Mr Abdulrahman, agent Geoff Dixon said the applicant had “nothing to do with the business” until the licence application had been made and also “that the limited company is not making the application; the applicant is”.

“All of the objections from trading standards refer to events that have happened prior to this application,” he added.

Mr Dixon said that “the application is not from the person that was running the business” and insisted his client had experience of running “alcohol-related businesses” at late-night venues.

Mr Dixon said training procedures would be put in place at the shop.