A shop will be allowed to sell alcohol in an area that police say already suffers from drink-related problems.

Burnt Oak Off Licence at 140 Burnt Oak Broadway has been given a licence to sell alcohol until 11pm on Monday to Saturday and 10.30pm on Sundays.

It comes despite a warning from the Metropolitan Police that other off licences in the area have been caught selling alcohol to people who are already drunk.

The area already has a large number of shops selling booze and suffers from the borough’s highest rate of alcohol-related violent crime.

A previous owner of Burnt Oak Off Licence had his premises licence revoked in 2017.

PC Daphne Smith, dedicated ward officer for Burnt Oak, told Friday’s (August 16) licensing subcommittee: “It is shocking sometimes that we have two days off and we come back and the place is littered with empty beer cans, people have been defecating.

“All we get from residents is complaints that while we have been away, it has been carnage.”

But Timothy Deal, a barrister representing the applicant, said his client was “an experienced licensee” and had agreed to be bound by strict licensing conditions.

These include installing CCTV cameras on the premises and keeping a log of all refusals to sell alcohol to people who are underage or already drunk.

The owner, Nakularasan Sinnadurai, agreed not to sell alcohol stronger than 6.5 per cent alcohol by volume.

Mr Deal said: “He wants to run a compliant organisation.”

Barnet Council is currently laying the groundwork for a special zone in Burnt Oak designed to limit the number of shops and other venues given alcohol licences.

But because the ‘cumulative impact zone’ has not yet been rolled out, it could not influence the committee’s decision on Friday.

The committee granted the premises licence after adding an extra condition to ensure the shop does not sell single cans of beer.

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