A supermarket owner targeted by police for selling booze after hours in a crime hot spot escaped having his store's licence revoked.

Savvas Yuksel was dragged in front of Ealing Council's licensing committee last Friday after three sting operations on the Cudi Food Centre in West Ealing revealed alcohol being sold hours after a midnight curfew.

Police wanted to ban alcohol from being sold altogether at the store, which is in a controlled drinking zone opposite Dean Gardens, where 19-year-old Fuad Bualeh was killed in January.

But councillors decided only to suspend the store's licence for up to a month while a shuttered cabinet is installed to keep booze out of sight after midnight, and insisted a new designated premises supervisor must be found in place of Mr Yuksel.

They heard how action had now been taken to rectify the fact that 24 of the store's 35 licensing conditions were not previously being met.

Sergeant Nigel Charlton told the hearing he was worried Cudi would continue to be run in a "cavalier fashion".

He said: "I'm at my wit's end. I don't know what else can be done and that's why I'm seeking the licence to be revoked."

But following the panel's decision, he said: "We're very happy with the result. Mr Yuksel has done most of what we asked for.

"We'll be keeping an eye on it - not these premises specifically, we'll look at the whole area - because there is a lot of crime around Dean Gardens."

An undercover council officer bought a bottle of red wine just before 3am in the first sting operation on Cudi in March. Another managed to buy five cans of strong lager after hours in May, and the final sting in June saw an officer walk away with two bottles of Smirnoff Ice two hours after the permitted time.

But Jeremy Sirrell, representing Mr Yuksel, said that in six months of operating there had not been a single incident of crime or disorder associated with Cudi.

"That's not indicative of a place that's badly run," he said.

He added that the existing licensing conditions were "onerous, inappropriate and unnecessary" but were now largely being met.

Mahir Kilic, a friend also representing Mr Yuksel, said: "We are very satisfied. A fundamental thing about the new licensing laws is about looking at the future, and we believe the committee has made the right decision."

A new designated premises supervisor has been trained and is just waiting for criminal record checks to be carried out, he said.