A shop owner has been told he can keep selling alcohol despite what officials described as “one of the highest” volumes of complaints about underage sales at any premises in Kent.

Police and trading standards had called for the removal of the licence at Kaneera Express in Herne Bay following claims children were being sold alcohol and vapes on a daily basis.

But owner Akeepan Balasubramaniyam saw off the challenge after his team questioned the credibility of the allegations.

He was even granted a second alcohol licence for another store in Canterbury, despite strong objections from Kent Police.

The decisions were made by Canterbury City Council’s licensing sub-committee during a hearing on Thursday (May 8).

The panel was told that in March, Kent Police applied to revoke the alcohol licence at Kaneera Express, which Mr Balasubramaniyam has run in Station Road since 2022.

A city council licensing officer said the review was prompted by an incident in which “a child aged 17 has been able to purchase two bottles of spirits from the store without any suitable challenge of age”.

PC Danielle Rolfe, from the force’s licensing team, explained: “On March 3, 2025, Kent Police were contacted by a victim reporting that, on March 2, their vehicle had been broken into and items stolen from within, which included a number of bank cards.

“The victim provided a transaction history to the police showing the stolen cards were used on the 2nd of March around 3.20pm at Kaneera Express.”

A 17-year-old reportedly used the stolen cards to buy one bottle of Ciroc vodka and another unidentified bottle of dark spirits - both costing about £40 each. A third attempted transaction was declined.

CCTV footage of the sale was shown in private due to an ongoing criminal investigation into the theft.

Police also highlighted a history of “numerous visits from the police and other agencies”, including Kent County Council’s trading standards team.

PC Rolfe added: “On March 15, a parent found vapes in her 16-year-old child's bedroom, who admitted she frequently purchased them with friends from this store.”

Oliver Jewell, principal trading standards officer for KCC, supported the push to revoke the licence.

He listed a string of complaints about the store dating back to March 2023, when a parent told KCC their 15-year-old child had been buying vapes at the shop for a year and had never been asked for ID.

He told the hearing: “In December 2023, a complaint was raised that children were purchasing vape products and that this was a daily occurrence, with the young people often wearing school uniform.”

He said the number of complaints received about the shop was “one of the highest for any one premises in the county”.

Despite this, in July 2024, KCC sent a child on a ‘test purchase’, attempting to buy a vape at the shop, but the sale was refused.

A CCC officer said there had also been reports of children loitering in the area around the store, engaging in antisocial behaviour and “pestering” locals to buy things for them in the shop.

Barrister Duncan Craig, representing Mr Balasubramaniyam, acknowledged the illegal alcohol sale caught on CCTV, saying: “He should have been ID’d.”

But he criticised the reliability of the evidence put forward by authorities, arguing: “You are being asked by these authorities to rely upon anonymous calls that have been made to them by people - we don’t know who they are, we don’t what their motivation is, what quality of the information that they’re being provided is, we don’t know if they’re competitors, we don’t know if they’re people who’ve been refused a sale and held a grudge.

“We are simply descending into the realms of speculation about those individuals and whether they even exist or what their reason is for doing this.

“The test purchase has to carry more weight than some person calling up saying ‘they're selling vapes to kids’.”

After deliberating, the licensing panel decided Mr Balasubramaniyam could retain the alcohol licence at Kaneera Express, but under strict new conditions.

These include implementing a Challenge 25 policy, maintaining an incident and refusals log, installing CCTV covering all alcohol sales areas, and ensuring staff are trained in licensing responsibilities.

The committee also considered Mr Balasubramaniyam’s application to take over Canterbury Lane Convenience Store, which had its previous licence revoked earlier this year after selling vodka to girls as young as 13.

Kent Police and trading standards objected to this application as well, with PC Rolfe telling the committee: “We still don’t have confidence in the designated premises supervisor to run a further premises within the district.”

Ownership of the store is currently held by Ali Gun, but Mr Balasubramaniyam’s purchase was dependent on securing a new licence.

His licensing consultant, Michael Kheng, told the panel “the last thing Akeepan wants to do is to lose that investment” by violating conditions at the new store.

The panel agreed to grant the new licence, under the same strict conditions as the Herne Bay store.

But Cllr Mike Bland (Lab), the chair of the committee, warned: “If there are any further incidents like the one in December, we wouldn’t hesitate in revoking [their licence].”