A Wisbech café has had its licence suspended after police said the owner had “fuelled criminality in the town”.

Police said Constantino Almeida, the owner of Delicious Snack Bar, in Hill Street, bought a bottle of vodka for £10 from a man who came into the café, who had purchased the alcohol using a stolen bank card.

Mr Almeida was also found to not have any recorded CCTV of the incident when it was requested by police.

The force said both of these issues breached conditions on Mr Almeida’s premises licence, and asked Fenland District Council to review the licence.

At a hearing held this week (September 11) councillors were told that a Section 19 notice was issued by police after the issues were highlighted, preventing Mr Almeida from being able to sell alcohol.

Councillors heard that allegations had been made that alcohol was still being sold after the notice was issued by being decanted into coffee cups. However, this allegation had been denied by Mr Almedia and officers confirmed there was no evidence to confirm this.

Licensing officers also added that the Section 19 notice was lifted following a compliance visit confirming new CCTV had been installed.

At the hearing, PC Paul Hawkins said it was clear Mr Almeida had breached a number of conditions on his licence by buying the bottle of vodka from the man and had “handled stolen goods”.

PC Hawkins said Mr Almeida’s actions had “fuelled criminality in the town”.

Raymon Pearson, a business consultant, represented Mr Almeida at the hearing and said he had been advising Mr Almeida on what he needed to do to follow the licensing conditions.

Mr Pearson told the hearing that when he was informed of the allegations and that a Section 19 notice had been issued, he made sure every part of the order was compiled with.

He added that when he heard alcohol was allegedly still being served in coffee cups, he “made it absolutely clear” to Mr Almeida that he could not do that “under any circumstances”.

Mr Pearson also set out further steps that had been taken to make sure there were no breaches of the licence conditions in the future.

He explained to councillors that Mr Almeida was from Portugal and that his English was “not very good”.

In light of this, Mr Pearson said new staff had been hired who spoke both English and Portuguese to help Mr Almeida, and added that Mr Almeida now had a copy of the licensing conditions translated into Portuguese.

Mr Pearson said a new CCTV system and cameras had been installed by professionals and that a full training course had been undertaken.

He added that the cafe would now be able to provide CCTV footage instantly to police if needed in the future.

Mr Pearson said mistakes had been made by Mr Almeida, but said these had now been rectified and that there would not be further issues in the future.

After considering the review in private the sub-committee announced that it would be suspending the licence.

Councillor Dave Oliver said: “In order to promote the licensing objectives the premises licence will be suspended for 28 days, commencing in 21 days from today.”

The sub-committee also decided that Mr Almeida should be removed as the designated premises supervisor.

Mr Almeida can appeal this decision at the magistrate’s court, but must do so within 21 days of it being issued.