City council officials will now investigate Arbela Food Mart
14:32, 10 Dec 2025Updated 14:33, 10 Dec 2025
Arbela Food Mart
A Liverpool convenience shop has been shut down by the courts over alleged criminal behaviour. Liverpool Council’s trading standards team has secured a closure order against Arbela Food Mart on Lawrence Road in Wavertree.
Last month, magistrates agreed to the closure of the business for a period of three months under the grounds of potential anti-social behaviour on the site. It was confirmed to Liverpool Council last week.
Now it faces a crunch meeting before city officials to retain its premises licence. Documents made public by the council have revealed how magistrates were satisfied the premises had been used to enable “criminal behaviour.”
According to the confirmation of a premises licence review issued against the business, it is understood the Lawrence Road location was used by persons who have engaged in “disorderly, offensive or criminal behaviour.” Additionally, it was said the use of the shop resulted in “serious nuisance to members of the public.”
Liverpool Council’s licensing and gambling sub-committee will now be asked to make a decision on the future of the shop and if it is permitted to continue to trade alcohol. The ECHO understands that when trading standards officials visited the shop earlier this year, a variety of concealments were identified to hide illicit goods.
Sources have confirmed to the ECHO how the shop failed an underage test purchase and sold illegal cigarettes. A series of complaints had been made about the shop by Merseyside Police and nearby residents.
Representatives from the shop are expected before a Town Hall committee on December 18 to put their case forward.
In 2019, the business was at the centre of a sting that led to the discovery of a scheme involving a baby monitoring device used to order fake cigarettes from the shop floor which were then shoved down a drainpipe.
The drainpipe and baby monitor used to help sell fake cigarettes at the Arbela Food Mart in Wavertree.(Image: Liverpool City Council)
Staff from the council’s alcohol and tobacco unit raided the shop with the help of Merseyside Police and found more than 72,000 cigarettes and four kilograms of tobacco in a flat above.
This led to the shop being fined £3,000 payable to the city council.
A licence was issued to the business and current premises licence holder Mukhlis Khidir Ahmed Khoshnaw in October 2023 permitting it to operate from 6am to 1am daily.
Alcohol sales are permitted between 8am and 1am.