Kingswood shop given alcohol ban over reports of cannabis sold to children

Police raided the premises, left, on 30 March

An off-licence outside Bristol has been banned from selling alcohol after it allegedly sold cannabis to children.

Customers at Fosters in Kingswood could reportedly ask for a "cheese sandwich" as a code word for buying cannabis, police told a licensing hearing.

The shop has been stripped of its premises licence, meaning it can no longer sell alcohol.

Avon and Somerset Police searched the shop and the flat above in March and found 1.4kg of cannabis.

Michael Hutton, who owns the shop and is the designated premises supervisor, said he was arrested and "locked in the back of a van", and was unaware of what the police found in his shop and flat.

He added he "never had any real problems" in 16 years of running the store.

South Gloucestershire Council revoked the premises licence during a hearing on 8 June, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Jamie Evans, police sergeant for the neighbourhood beat team in Kingswood, told the hearing: "We had intelligence going as far back as 2015 that cannabis was sold from the shop.

"Cannabis was sold to kids in small paper sweet bags.

"This intel came in from a youth carer and when they challenged that youth and asked how they bought it, they took them down there and got the carer to wait outside while they went in and made a purchase of cannabis, to show how they had done that."

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