17:48 Monday 20th May 2013
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
CHRIS MANN: An Asda supermarket in Wisbech has been given a list of improvements to implement to save its alcohol licence. Repeated thefts of booze from the shop, and a stream of violent incidents led Cambridgeshire police to challenge their licence to sell alcohol. Inspector Robin Sissons has more. (TAPE)
ROBIN SISSONS: Well because of the economic climate being as it is at the moment, we’ve seen an increase in shoplifting. Now obviously normally we work in partnership with shops, and we have increased patrols in the shops. We sometimes put crime prevention cars out the front called the Rap car. Or we put literature in the shop and help wherever we can. On this occasion the staff didn’t seem to be willing to engage with the police, and in fact they were doing the opposite. They were really trying to detect crime by challenging people after they’d committed the crime, rather than trying to reduce crime by once identifying a possible offender, saying to them “excuse me, can we help you”, and trying to put them off the crime, rather than allowing them to commit it. So after three or four months of negotiations with the staff, it wasn’t going well, and mediation failed. So in the end we had to call a review, I’m afraid.
CHRIS MANN: So you’re challenging its licence. What happens next? Continue reading “Asda Wisbech Licence Review Raises Wider Issues”