A shop could lose its licence to sell alcohol for repeatedly selling drink and vapes to underage customers – after a drunk teenager jumped into the Thames.

Thames Valley Police and licensing officers want councillors to ban Castle News Food and Wine from selling alcohol. They say the shop at 37 St Leonard’s Road in Windsor sold alcohol to teenagers repeatedly for more than two years.

Police say that  in May 2022 a 15-year-old girl bought vodka from the shop using fake ID then jumped into the Thames and had to be rescued. A police report says: “The young girl got very drunk on the vodka and jumped into the River Thames.

“It was felt that if the member of the public had not jumped into the river to save her, she may not be here now.”

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The police had already received reports of underage customers being served in the weeks before the incident. And in June 2022 an off-duty officer found 13-year-old children outside the shop laughing about how they had been served alcohol.

Police decided to strengthen the shop’s licence, making it mandatory for CCTV to cover the till area, and for police to be able to download footage.

But police continued to receive reports of underage children being served, and of crimes outside the shop. Staff claimed they were unable to download the CCTV footage on more than one occasion.

In April this year a 16-year-old girl bought vodka from the shop apparently using a fake ID, then fell unconscious after drinking it and had to be taken to hospital.

When police officers asked a staff member to show them footage of the sale, he kept skipping past the relevant time. Footage eventually showed the staff member had not examined the teenager’s ID.

Police asked the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to repeal the shop’s licence. Licensing officers supported the police, adding that they also found several illegal vapes for sale there during inspections in December 2022 and August 2023.

Officers recommended councillors on the licensing sub committee vote in favour of the ban at a hearing on Tuesday July 23.

But shop owner Tagtar Singh said previous shop staff were to blame. Speaking on his behalf, Mr Singh’s lawyer admitted there was a ‘management problem here with Mr Tagtar Singh not getting things right'.

But he added: “Every time there is a sale, the sale is from the staff employed. Every time, Mr Tatgtar Singh had to remove the staff out when such things happened.”

Mr Singh’s lawyer suggested that councillors instead agree to replace Mr Singh as the designated licence supervisor and replace him with someone who had passed a higher level three DPS course.

He suggested that the shop’s licence should be suspended until this happened. Councillors have until Tuesday, July 30, to report their decision.