AN OFF-LICENCE that has served booze to children twice in the past eight month faces a licence review.

Desai Off Licence, also known as Best One, in Ridge Row, Burnley, failed police test purchasing opera-tions on December 3 last year and May 18 this year.

Councillors will consider whether to strip the shop’s alcohol licence or impose any other punishments on August 9.

But the shop will go before the council’s licensing committee a week before, on August 2, after an application to change the licence holder from Michael Variyam to Kandeepan Kumaravel.

Police have objected to the application though and said it would not change how the shop was being run.

PC Mark Driver, licensing officer at Burnley Council, said: “The applicant failed a test purchase at the premises on May 18 which led to me asking for a review of the premises licence, and it is my understanding that he was running the premises at the time of the previous test purchase fail on December 3.

“In effect these transfers will make no difference to the management or running of the premises and the police feel that there will be a continued undermining of the prevention of crime and disorder and the protection of children from harm licensing objectives if the appli-cations were to be granted.

“I feel that this application does give rise to exceptional concerns in relation to the continued sale of alcohol to children and the police hereby object to the variations as we feel that if granted the pre-vention of crime and disorder objective would be undermined.”