greenknight Posted December 8, 2014 Report Posted December 8, 2014 If this is true billbobobby it shows without doubt how inadequate our council is. So next it will be bootleg spirits under a brand name, The County Emergency Department filling up with kids admitted with alcohol poisoning, police wasting precious resources dealing with this outfit etc,etc. However I have a feeling that the intelligence agencies have an interest in this crew so perhaps a little extra rope has been provided!!!
Roger Posted December 9, 2014 Report Posted December 9, 2014 Today the council licensing committee granted an alcohol licence to this shop despite objections from both the police and trading standards. Licence granted once applicant produces a lease to show he is legally responsible for the running of the shop. Disappointing. Have you got a link to that decision? That seems strange. Obviously the building is not the problem. It's just bricks. It's the people who run it. Why grant the application at all until sufficient distance is shown by the applicant from the previous regime? Who owns the building and who has the lease are obvious questions.
Roger Posted April 2, 2015 Report Posted April 2, 2015 Today the council licensing committee granted an alcohol licence to this shop despite objections from both the police and trading standards. Licence granted once applicant produces a lease to show he is legally responsible for the running of the shop. Disappointing. I'm a little bit confused as to how this is a new story on the HT website today as it seems to be 4 month old news .... Hereford Times West Mercia Police said before the committee meeting that it has evidence the latest applicant “has connections†with those involved in the sale and supply of illegal tobacco. I would have thought that the licensing objectives would be undermined if the applicant has criminal connections as alleged by the Police ...
dippyhippy Posted April 2, 2015 Report Posted April 2, 2015 I had the same thought, Roger. I was a tad confused...... but it does relate to the same premises doesn't it??? I'm not sure why HT are so far behind on this one.......
Pete Boggs Posted April 2, 2015 Report Posted April 2, 2015 I'm not sure why HT are so far behind on this one....... Slow news day at the HT?
dippyhippy Posted April 2, 2015 Report Posted April 2, 2015 Must be Pete! I'm not knocking it, but there is an election in a few weeks time..... quite possibly the most important thing to happen , it will certainly effect every single one of us. Yet front page news this week? A cat story.
Roger Posted April 3, 2015 Report Posted April 3, 2015 That area of town is developing into an an enclave ..... Add to that the dodgy underpass at the end. The Milton Keynes style lights. I'll add those to my moan, In My Opinion, It's a shambles ....
Aylestone Voice Posted April 3, 2015 Report Posted April 3, 2015 It was discussed at the Regulatory Committee on 26 March But the granting of a licence or not to sell alcohol really has nothing to do with the illicit sale of cigarettes or indeed anything else. So refusing the Licence would not have shut the place down.
Paul Jones Posted April 3, 2015 Report Posted April 3, 2015 Re: Your last sentence Colin I know this is correct ... Regarding the store name it is obviously derived from a long standing chain in Poland. Żabka (convenience store) ~ link from Wiki Even down to copying the frog logo which is the English translation of Zabka (small frog) I suppose in the event of a dispute about trademarks and stuff then that is an argument that someone else can have but I can quite see how 99% of passing trade, who probably don't use the shop, would consider it to be Polish ... If the store appear to be able to massage the truth about the origins of the shop and/or ownership then how transparent are they going to be about anything else? Is it good enough just to throw a few staple Polish tins of food on the shelves plus some Polish beer? And stick a frog on the front? First thing I would check is this Mr. Salh's recent history in running an off licence in this Country. Has he got a recent track record in this area? Anywhere in England/Wales. Or has he been parachuted in? I don't know where the revenue from these dodgy dealings goes to but there is every chance it is laundered back to Iraq. Either with consent or by some sort of racket going on that the owner has no control over. Islamic State has the potential to creep all over the place with it's tentacles and hidden agenda's ... This is spot on! They have in my opinion STOLEN the brand of a large well known Polish shop as Roger has pointed out Zabka and now more recently they have opened another new shop directly opposite (Jennings old shop) and STOLEN yet another well know chain branding from Poland called Biedronka, after receiving several complains they changed the logo to something slightly different, it is now a bee, but they still however use the Biedronka ladybird logo on their Facebook page. How can they just steal another companies name and logo and nobody does anything about it? Surely this is trade misdicription at the very least! The staff have no contracts and are paid below the minimum wage and usually in cash.
Roger Posted April 3, 2015 Report Posted April 3, 2015 It was discussed at the Regulatory Committee on 26 March But the granting of a licence or not to sell alcohol really has nothing to do with the illicit sale of cigarettes or indeed anything else. So refusing the Licence would not have shut the place down. Construction work has little or nothing to do with collecting the bins, or gambling, or dodgy tobacco or running an illegal bar. A certain organisation that operates in various places has diversified it's criminal activities to achieve an overall goal using that method ... So the blinkered approach of the Regulatory Committee (if you are correct) confuses me. That said ~ if the Council Committee has set the test for this applicant in the same way as if it was any other punter applying for a licence then fine. And obviously you won't shut down a shop that is trading in goods that you don't need a licence for.
Roger Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 Zabka.jpg A couple of guys were taken off in the police cars along with the bags of tobacco. Zabka has been raided again .... On 25th February 2016 Licence suspended at Hereford shop after illegal tobacco found A HEREFORD shop with a history of selling illicit tobacco has had its licence suspended. Herefordshire Council's regulatory sub committee agreed to the measure at a hearing on Tuesday after a joint police and Herefordshire Council Trading Standards operation uncovered illegal tobacco at Zabka on Eign Gate. Hereford Times
Colin James Posted March 2, 2016 Author Report Posted March 2, 2016 I knew about this last week. This shop is owned and run by a Kurdish (Iraqi) family they are not Polish and the local Polish people are not happy as many people will blame them. This additional raid will not stop these people! They are more than happy to pay the fines as they earn more from the illegal cigarettes that they continue to sell. The local Polish community are getting a bad name because of these dodgy shop owners who are Kurdish (Iraqi) NOT Polish but use the Polish shop as a front for their illegal activities! They even have the cheek to steal their name from big corporate legit Polish companies and appear to get away with that too! In this case, they use the name Zabka. The other shop they own opposite is called Biedronka which is another large Polish company. They should close them down! This will not stop them. Their staff have no contracts and only get paid £4 per hour which they also appear to get away with.
Roger Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 I knew about this last week. This shop is owned and run by an Iraqi family they are not Polish and the local Polish people are not happy as many people will blame them. Police and trading standards tried to block the move by Zardashit Karem Salh for the Zabka shop on Eign Gate. Hereford Times Report above dated April 2015. Application was objected to when that Salh chap took over. But was granted anyway by the mugs at the Council. I would guess dodgy tobacco is still being sold there today ... Other members of staff were also interviewed and one stated that tobacco had been sold under the counter ever since they had been employed at the store.
herefordman75 Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 This time they should not have any licence for alcohol or tobacco issued - simple. It's costing huge amounts of money each time they are raided in police time and resources, if anything, the owners should be fined enough to cover these costs - make an example out of them.
Roger Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 I see that there's zero mention of any illicit booze being detected in this latest raid. The whole scam seems to be tobacco based.
H.Wilson Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 If these shops were trading like this in Poland they would of been closed down within 2 weeks. I am sure they will still be selling illegal cigarettes which will be full of lots of additional chemicals and other substances, I am surprised that the people buying these do not realise that. I am not at all surprised that they pay their staff only £4 well below the minimum wage and without contracts, so who can we report this too? Why is nothing being done about this exploitation?
K.Butt Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 I appreciate it would take a lot of resources but these shops should all be raided at the exact same time, i'm sure they all know each other.
twowheelsgood Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 I am not at all surprised that they pay their staff only £4 well below the minimum wage and without contracts, so who can we report this too? Why is nothing being done about this exploitation? I think the answer is depressingly obvious ...
Alex Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 I assume these Kurdish owners must now hold British passports or be British citizen is order to open a business? They are taking the p i s s.
Steve Major Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 Last time they were raided, I heard that they were tipped off by a former copper. The police should ONLY inform a select few people and let all the other staff know when they are on route to the raid, that will narrow down these con men being tipped off and if they still get wind it will be easier to find out who is giving them the nod.
Denise Lloyd Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 Just something else to lower the tone of Herefordshire even more. HC WAKE UP and smell the coffee for goodness sake.
Ubique Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 Last time they were raided, I heard that they were tipped off by a former copper. The police should ONLY inform a select few people and let all the other staff know when they are on route to the raid, that will narrow down these con men being tipped off and if they still get wind it will be easier to find out who is giving them the nod. Steve , may I suggest that if you have the evidence that a retired Police Office tipped them off you should inform the Authorities - my thoughts are that a Serving Police Officer in the know told the retired Police Officer who , for whatever reason , if your info. Is correct told the store .......
Steve Major Posted March 2, 2016 Report Posted March 2, 2016 Steve , may I suggest that if you have the evidence that a retired Police Office tipped them off you should inform the Authorities - my thoughts are that a Serving Police Officer in the know told the retired Police Officer who , for whatever reason , if your info. Is correct told the store ....... What makes you think that I have not already done that? Do not worry everything that can be done has been.
Roger Posted March 4, 2016 Report Posted March 4, 2016 They should close them down! This will not stop them. Looking at the Council website you can see what the current licence is that they're trying to remove .... Council Website So the removal of the licence certainly won't close the shop down. In fact before this current licence for booze was granted the shop was trading with no licence as it didn't need one. Council Website I think you could construe that the authorities are not happy with the shop and even tho there's no evidence that they're infringing the booze aspect they'll have that licence away as the licence holder is a criminal. When the European Shop on Commercial Road was busted for 100,000 dodgy cigarettes in 2014 the guy was given a 4 month suspended prison sentence so Mr. Sahl who was caught here with just about 5% of that quantity will get a joke sentence when he appears at Court ... He certainly will not be going to jail ...
Steve Major Posted March 5, 2016 Report Posted March 5, 2016 Zardashit, now there is an appropriate name if ever I saw one lol
Colin James Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Posted March 5, 2016 I have changed the title to now include Kurdish owned because I am fed up of Polish people getting a bad name simply because the Polski Sklep is merely a front as in many cases for their other illegal activities
Roger Posted March 16, 2016 Report Posted March 16, 2016 Tax on hand rolling tobacco has been hiked by 5% today in the budget. This will only strengthen the position of the dodgy shops like Zabka that sell cheap imported stuff (very often genuine) that is evading duty. I think I overheard George say that the penalties for selling dodgy tobacco would be increased. But the existing penalties, if applied, are very harsh already. And it's obviously no deterrent. These shops will just front up a disposable fall guy to take the hit as and when they are caught.
Roger Posted March 21, 2016 Report Posted March 21, 2016 Zabka up before the Council again on 24.03.16 for a proper hearing about the recent raid. Link Photo images available re: tobacco seized.
Steve Major Posted March 22, 2016 Report Posted March 22, 2016 They should close them down and certainly not give them their alcohol licence back, they rely on this and still are offering dodgy cigarettes! They also do not pay their staff the minimum wage, all staff earn only £4 per hour, (more fool them I know). I also heard that the new shop on the Belmont Rd (Mila) is also selling doggy fags and have employed an illegal migrant who came here from Calais under a lorry, these people are just taking the micky and appear to be getting away with it, they should clamp down on them.
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