VAPES SOLD ILLEGALLY 'LIKE A DRUG DEALER'

City shop is stripped of its licence

- By DAVID HUMPHREYS

THE methods employed by operators of a Liverpool convenience store have been compared to drug dealers after thousands of pounds worth of illicit vapes were seized from "professionally installed" concealments.

MP Food and Wine, on Hartsbourne Avenue in Belle Vale, has been stripped of its premises licence by Liverpool Council after failing multiple test purchases for illegal vape sales and flouting regular warnings.

Across two visits alone to the shop, members of the authority's alcohol and tobacco unit obtained around £6,000 worth of contraband stock that had been hidden away and sold to the public despite instructions not to do so. On one occasion, it was alleged staff in the shop turned off CCTV cameras to conceal the whereabouts of the forbidden products during a test purchase.