Liquor Store's Tobacco Permit Suspended

A 2 Connector Road liquor store can't sell cigarettes for a week, starting July 1.

The Westborough Board of Health voted 3-0 Tuesday night to suspend HighPoint Wines' tobacco sales permit for seven days, as directed in the board's tobacco regulations, Director of Public Health Paul McNulty said today.

A HighPoint clerk sold a cigar and cigarettes to a girl under age 18 during a Worcester Regional Tobacco Control Collaborative youth compliance check on April 11, health officials said during a May 21 public hearing at the Forbes Municipal Building. The regulations call for a seven-day suspension, and a $200 fine, which HighPoint owner Devinder Rekki has paid.

It was HighPoint's second alleged violation of the board's regulations this year. HighPoint sold cigarettes to a minor used by the collaborative on Feb. 26. Rekki paid a $100 fine, McNulty said during the May 21 hearing.

The health board had tabled the suspension discussion until Tuesday because HighPoint clerk Andre Yelanko contended he had been "checking IDs every single time," and in this case, the customer "looked like she was older." He also contended he saw her nearby a few days later, and she showed him an ID indicating she was over age 18.

However, the collaborative's Karyn Johnson told McNulty in a May 28 e-mail that "the youth we used for the second failed compliance check does not have a car or a license."

The tobacco sales permit suspension is the board's first in recent memory, McNulty has said.