Board revokes EZ Mart’s liquor license for selling to underage customers

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — The Board of License Commission revoked the EZ Mart convenience store’s liquor license Tuesday because of reports that the store had been repeatedly selling alcohol to area minors. The owner of the EZ Mart, Malaiperumal Sundaramurthy, requested a continuation of the commission’s ruling because the lawyer he had appointed had a scheduling conflict. The commission denied this request because they felt that the owner had ample notice of the meeting and enough time to provide legal representation. The review of the store’s liquor license stems from an incident that occurred March 28, when a clerk in the store sold alcohol to a local minor. According to Mr. Sundaramurthy, the employee who sold the alcohol was ordered to six months unsupervised probation, and he had since told all of the store’s employees that any sale of any product to underage patrons would be punishable by firing. Sgt. Guy Bibeau said that area teens have known that the store has been selling alcohol to underage customers for some time. “I don’t believe that this is an isolated incident,” said Sgt. Bibeau. “They’ve been laughing about it up at the high school.” James Kraskouskas, owner of Anthony’s Liquor Mart, said that he thought the city of Gardner should take stern action against the EZ Mart because following the incident in March, there were apparently no changes made to ensure that the store was no longer essentially managed by teen-aged employees. Mr. Kraskouskas said to members of the commission that, following the original reported incident March 28, it was reported in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that on April 19 during a robbery of the store, the only employees on staff at the time were a 19-year-old male clerk and a mentally handicapped male. “There are 17 convenience stores in Gardner,” said Mr. Kraskouskas. “This convenience store has gas pumps and it doesn’t sell gas, they don’t sell lottery, it is a bare-bones store that is barely getting by and it is run by teenagers,” Mr. Kraskouskas added. “I think that if this manager believes its prudent to run a liquor store managed by teenagers he doesn’t deserve a license.” Following the ruling, Mr. Sandaramurthy said that he now has to make the decision of whether to remain open or close down the store completely. “This is our first offense, we requested a continuation and they denied it,” said Mr. Sandaramurthy. “I really don’t think that this ruling is fair.” Mr. Sandaramurthy added that he plans on appealing the commission’s ruling. oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 5/14/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 115)