A corner shop is having its licence reviewed after a staff member was accused of hitting an alleged shoplifter with a metal pole and barricading them inside.
Police also say Aces Express in Dartford failed to hand over CCTV evidence of a rape outside the store and employed illegal workers.
The force applied to Dartford Borough Council for a review of the Spital Street shop’s licence in July this year. It will be considered by a committee on Thursday.
PC Andre Smuts wrote to the council to say premises supervisor Ranjeev Thapar “has demonstrated a distinct lack of responsibility,” in running the shop according to his licence.
He explains that police were called following a report of a man shoplifting and fighting with staff on May 22.
The police call taker noted they could hear a male saying in the background that he was being “hit with a metal bar” and kept on asking to be let out of the shop.
The report reads: “The male was alleged to have been detained by shop staff for stealing by being locked into the shop and then assaulted with a metal pole.
“During this incident two further distressed customers were also inside the locked shop.”
Mr Thapar ignored requests for CCTV of the incident for two weeks, the report says.
Kay Kaur, a shop assistant described as “Madam Boss”, later sent CCTV footage to the police after numerous requests for it were not responded to, with bosses saying staff couldn’t access it.
However, the footage came in four separate clips and missed key moments.
“There is seemingly very relevant footage missing of a worker and the male struggling with one another and the shoplifter pulling at the bar,” PC Smuts writes.
“The two can also be seen struggling with one another as they exit the camera view towards the rear of the shop.
“Although all shop’s cameras’ footage had been requested and all relevant footage being required being reiterated, there was no footage of the two as they go out of sight towards the rear of the shop, which is covered by several other camera angles.”
Mrs Kaur then told police she had “inadvertently overwritten the original file,” and accused her CCTV engineer of wiping the hard drive, making the full video impossible for police to see.
She then told officers: “The metal pole referred to was actually only a £1 water soaker, made out of foam, which was left over from when the shop used to sell them.
‘The two can also be seen struggling with one another as they exit the camera view towards the rear of the shop…’
“The shop assistant felt safer with the foam toy it in his hands due to the shoplifter continuously threatening to stab him and saying that he had another knife in his pocket.”
Police bodycam footage shows a worker holding the pole in question, and PC Smuts writes: “It is my opinion that the missing footage contained evidence to support the shoplifter's account of him being hit.”
Mr Thapar openly told police that he does not train his staff to use the CCTV system, which violates his licence which requires the shop to have a member of staff capable of using the system present at all times.
He told officers they do “not train their staff to work the CCTV due to staff being able to delete footage of themselves stealing from the shop.”
Police have had other run-ins with the premises refusing to give CCTV evidence of other crimes.
In January 2023, officers were called to reports of a “vulnerable, drunk and unconscious female being raped on a bench” which was covered by the shop’s CCTV.
When originally asked for the footage, “Mr Thapar was obstructive, rude and very unhelpful,” the report writes.
“He said that, if he chose to, he could easily access the CCTV footage we required as he had that facility on his phone, thereby negating the need to attend the shop, but then continued to question why he should help us and refused to provide the CCTV.”
In March 2024, the shop was also visited by the police and immigration officers and found to be hiring an illegal worker, who was the only staff member in the shop at the time.
The man had been working there since September 2022 and in the country on a student visa, which had been cancelled earlier in 2024 for failing to attend his course in Nottingham.
As such he was listed as an overstayer and arrested” by immigration officials at the shop on March 8.
PC Smuts writes that this litany of events “displays a flagrant disregard for the licensing objectives,” and therefore requested that the council consider stripping the shop of its licence.
If successful, the shop would no longer be able to sell alcohol - but regular trading does not require a licence.
The licensing sub-committee will make the final call at a meeting on Thursday September 12.
