A STORE in Swindon has had its licence to sell alcohol revoked by the council after allowing children as young as 15 years old to purchase booze.

Handyman’s general stores in Ferndale Road also failed to comply with licence conditions imposed to help the off-licence and hardware store avoid further illegal sales.

And Swindon Council, which caught the store in an investigation by its trading standards’ department, says the enforcement action should be a warning to any traders who try to sell drink to under-18s.

Russell Sharland, case manager at the council’s trading standards department, said: “We give all of the premises the materials they need to have a good solid system and we regularly test those systems with test purchasing.

“The vast majority of traders have worked with the council but for those who are selling to under-18s and not following our advice, we have a robust policy of prosecution, licence review or both.”

Handyman’s – the premises licence for which is held by Machinder Singh Rehnsi and Udam Kaur Rehnsi – was first highlighted as a problem in spring 2008 when the council received two complaints of alcohol being sold to underage customers.

In August of that year, Mrs Rehnsi was caught selling Strongbow Cider to a 15-year-old trading standards’ volunteer.

As a result, an action plan was drawn up to help the store stop further illegal sales.

But only a month later, Mr Rehnsi sold WKD Blue to another 15-year-old volunteer.

Following a licence review in February 2009, the council suspended the sale of alcohol for six weeks and also imposed conditions on the premises licence. The council insisted that Mr and Mrs Rehnsi keep a ‘refusal book’ to log details of alcohol sales which were disallowed on the grounds of age.

Staff also had to receive formal training on age-restricted sales and had to adopt a ‘challenge 21’ policy, where all customers seeking to buy alcohol who look under 21 are asked for identification.

However, trading standards found the store did not comply with the conditions.

Mrs Rehnsi was also caught selling alcohol to a 16-year-old volunteer in August last year.

As a result, Swindon Council’s licensing panel revoked the licence. An appeal can be made within 21 days.

The Adver tried to contact Mr or Mrs Rehnsi, who were not at the panel, but they were unavailable for comment. The store was closed yesterday when the Adver visited.