A PONDERS End shop caught with a van-load of smuggled booze and tobacco could be stripped of its licence.

Customs officers swooped on Ponders End Food Centre on February 1 this year, seizing 14 litres of vodka, 8,000 cigarettes, and more than 13 kilos of tobacco, along with a white Ford transit van.

The owners of the High Street shop could not produce receipts showing they had paid the £3,500 duty on the products, which are suspected of being smuggled into the country illegally.

Now Enfield Trading Standards have called for the store to be stripped of its licence to sell alcohol and tobacco after it was twice caught selling booze after hours.

Undercover officers bought wine and beer after 1am – outside of the store's licensed hours – and trading standards has told councillors it cannot trust the owners to follow the law.

In one instance, in October last year, a staff member who has since quit sold a bottle of white wine from under the counter at 1.45am.

A subsequent search revealed around 50 bottles of wine and more than 30 bottles of spirits in crates under the counter.

Authorities have been monitoring the store since 2008 after receiving complaints of illegal tobacco being sold and allegations “under the counter” booze was being sold out of hours.

Charlotte Palmer, licensing officer for Enfield Trading Standards, has written to Enfield councillors asking them to take away the licence, adding she does not believe either owner of the store are suitable as designated premises supervisors.

However, the owners have recently carried out renovation work to join their two adjacent stores, and have lodged an application for a 24-hour alcohol licence for the newly-expanded premises.

PC Martyn Fisher, licensing officer for Enfield Police, said in response: “It is quite obvious from the regular breaches of the current licence conditions, the background history and the more recent large seizure of non-duty paid alcohol and tobacco, that the management of the venue are quite happy to ignore the licensing objectives.”

A panel of councillors will assess both applications at a meeting scheduled for 10am on Wednesday, June 29, at Enfield Civic Centre.