A BRADFORD shopkeeper who was caught selling counterfeit cigarettes has been granted permission to run another off-licence.

Councillors yesterday gave Goran Mohamadamin permission to sell alcohol and cigarettes at his latest shop, despite objections from trading standards officials.

Mr Mohamadamin, originally from Iraq, had been £15,000 in debt while running Zak’s Grocery Shop in Great Horton Road, Bradford.

In July last year, magistrates had fined him £2,000 after he admitted selling tobacco and cigarettes that breached health rules.

Trading Standards officers had raided the shop in November 2013, and found 96 packets of counterfeit hand-rolling tobacco and 182 packs of cigarettes that did not display the required warnings.

Then, months after being fined, he was caught red-handed transferring 93,600 illegal cigarettes from one vehicle to another.

He was given a suspended jail sentence at Bradford Crown Court in June this year.

Despite his history, Mr Mohamadamin had applied for permission to sell cigarettes and alcohol at a new premises, Dil Mini Market, an Eastern European shop in Little Horton Lane, Bradford, until 1am daily.

In a letter, Trading Standards officer David Clutterbrook urged the panel to reject the application, saying they had "serious concerns" about Mr Mohamadamin's ability to prevent crime and disorder or protect children from harm.

At yesterday's meeting of the Bradford district licensing panel at City Hall, councillors were told about Mr Mohamadamin being fined at the Magistrates' Court but not the Crown Court case.

Mr Mohamadamin said CCTV would be in operation at the shop and anyone looking underage would be asked for ID.

No-one from Trading Standards was at the meeting.

The panel gave Mr Mohamadamin a licence, but said it would run to midnight daily instead of 1am.

The panel also granted a licence for an outside bar at a country pub, despite concerns from residents that it would create a disturbance.

The plan for the Malt, formerly the Malt Shovel, in Wilsden Road, Harden, had attracted more than 70 objections.

One resident, Julie Fawcett, told the meeting she was already having to put up with noisy events, such as the pub quiz.

She said: "We could actually hear the questions inside our own living room, it was that loud. We were quite concerned we weren't winning."

Publican Neil Pickles said the outside bar would alleviate a bottle-neck of customers wanting to be served at the main bar. He said it would always be supervised by a senior member of staff.

The panel granted the licence, but said speakers on the outside bar had to be removed.