{"id":456072,"date":"2026-06-01T22:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/456072\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T22:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:26:10","slug":"bottle-o-store-blamed-by-police-for-otaras-public-drinking-anti-social-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/456072\/","title":{"rendered":"Bottle-O store blamed by police for \u014ctara\u2019s public drinking, anti-social behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sergeant Richard Bracey claimed 80% of the issues in the area were because of the bottle shop.<\/p>\n

Despite a 24\/7 alcohol ban<\/a>, he said his community policing team consistently dealt with drinkers outside the bottle shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a benched seat seconds away from the store where we have arrested many persons drinking, and seized alcohol and disposed of it,\u201d Bracey said.<\/p>\n

The town centre\u2019s playground and a seating area was removed earlier this year to deter anti-social behaviour and public drinking.<\/p>\n

The closure of the liquor store would be a huge improvement for the area, Bracey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t afford to lose a town centre, but the way it\u2019s going with this sort of behaviour, the fear and how scared people are, it\u2019s going to close this place down.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his team, formerly called neighbourhood policing, were only supposed to be in \u014ctara for two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no leaving date for \u014ctara town centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the community saying we don\u2019t want you to leave, that\u2019s how bad the problem is. We aren\u2019t monitoring any other area for alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottle shop has never failed an off-licence renewal and has passed several controlled-purchase operations by police.<\/p>\n

In his evidence, company director Jagpreet Singh Oberoi stated his team were doing all they could to deter anti-social behaviour outside his shop.<\/p>\n

He said many of the \u201cproblematic people\u201d loitering in the town centre seemed to be attracted to a nearby horse-racing betting outlet.<\/p>\n

Oberoi acknowledged some drank in public, but said these people were banned from his shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I feel that the store is valued by the wider community and we are part of that community. I think it is a small part of the community that abuse alcohol or cause problems. Most of our customers are good, hard-working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oberoi said he was involved in the community, supported some sports clubs and the business associations, and and would continue to work with authorities to address public drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is needed is for people to work together to minimise and discourage this type of behaviour. I will continue to play my part in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her report, licensing inspector Melany Aiono stated the DLC should apply a stricter criterion in assessing the applicant\u2019s suitability, because of the vulnerability of the area.<\/p>\n

She was concerned with the applicant\u2019s lack of duty of care to a vulnerable community.<\/p>\n

Aiono stated the removal of the playground area<\/a> and public seating highlighted the severe issues relating to public drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, the applicant\u2019s premises is likely responsible for these problems since it is the only off-licence in the \u014ctara town centre and other off-licences are further away and physically separated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on my inquiries, I believe the amenity and good order of the locality would likely be increased, by more than a minor extent, by the effects of a refusal to renew the licence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DLC is expected to release its decision later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergeant Richard Bracey claimed 80% of the issues in the area were because of the bottle shop. Despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[86498,44183,15382,47994,3595,21659,2082,42,43,675,3109,2735,231808,231810,40,38,41,39,231809],"class_list":["post-456072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-antisocial","tag-behaviour","tag-blamed","tag-bottleo","tag-by","tag-drinking","tag-for","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-police","tag-public","tag-store","tag-taras","tag-tokalau","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-torika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}