Hanwell Off-licence Caught Selling Vape to Teenager

Staff member said he 'wasn't concentrating' during illegal transaction

Best-one in Hanwell. Picture: Ealing Council

March 20, 2025

An off-licence in Hanwell is facing more restrictions after it was found to have sold a vape to a teenager during a regular inspection. The Ealing Council Licensing Sub-committee decided to enforce stricter conditions on the shops licensing agreement on Wednesday (19 March).

Council licensing officers visited Best-one, on Greenford Avenue on Tuesday October 29. The teenage volunteer asked the employee behind the counter for a vape, paid in cash, and left the premises. The teen was not asked their age, or for any form of ID.

When officers returned to the premises minutes later to inform the employee, Mr Jeet Gulati, that he had sold a vape to a teenager he said: “I wasn’t concentrating.”

A legal representative for the shop told the committee that the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS), Harmohan Singh Gulati, immediately gave the employee and his relative a formal warning and was told if it happened again, he would be fired. He claims the employee then undertook relevant training around underage sale

Harmohan Singh Gulati operates one other premises and a Post Office. He told the committee that the employee in question had been trained by himself rather than taking any relevant external training during his three years of employment.

The shop also failed compliance checks in August 2020, when council officers conducted a routine inspection and found over 1000 bottles and cans of beer bought from an unauthorised wholesaler. On these unauthorised beers duty had not been paid, amounting to over £1000.

Harmohan Singh Gulati told the committee that these unauthorised goods had been purchased by his father without his knowledge of where the beers were sourced. Since then, there has been no evidence of the sale of unauthorised beers in the shop.

Robert Dear, the licensing officer involved in the inspection, told the committee, “He’s [Harmohan Singh Gulati] shown previously that he can learn a lesson, so hopefully, in four and a half years, he won’t have to learn another one… I’m happy with new conditions.”

Councillor Rima Baaklini said, “Limited weight should be attached to the first occurrence from 2020 as the concerns raised then were different to the current breach, with no evidence of repetition from then.”

The shop will continue to operate with a licence under ten new conditions. These include maintaining CCTV for 31 days, training all staff with training records kept in a log, and a senior member of staff being present at all times.

Philip James Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter