THE manager of the International Food Centre in Binford Place which has had its license revoked argued that he would have been able to comply with the license conditions.

At Sedgemoor District Council's licensing and gambling committee Mehmet Yildirim submitted a witness statement in which he said that while his English is sufficient to deal with customers, when he is given written correspondence from the authorities he asks people who can read English at a higher standard to explain and advise on next steps, and said: "In light of this, I do my best to follow the licensing objectives."

He said that one of his employees who applied for a personal license had been successful, and strongly disagreed with the licensing officials insistence that he ignored their advice.

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"They assert that I sell alcohol to drunken people who then cause disruption in the town centre. I strongly disagree with this and on the contrary, I have been attacked and the shop has been marauded because I refused to sell alcohol to these people," Mr Yildirim said.

"I wish to reiterate that the reason they are hanging around the shop is not because I sell them alcohol but because there are seats near the shop and all these people with drinking problems congregate there."

He said the drinkers purchased alcohol from many stores including Morrisons and said that: "I strongly believe that the International Food Centre is being singled out for no apparent reason."

"I follow the authorities advice and continue to improve on the licensing objectives. I do not sell alcohol to drunken people, I train staff about alcohol and tobacco sale, I keep a log of refusal, several employees have applied for personal license (albeit they failed), we have one more personal license holder, I have registered with the ICO and paid the relevant registration fee, I have changed the location of the CCTV screen and I have learned how to operate the the CCTV recording."

Despite Mr Yildirim's appeal the panel did not feel he deserved a further chance and the license was revoked after a three hour hearing.