A shop that employed an asylum-seeker on less than £30 a day faces losing its alcohol licence after its supervisor told police he "does not know what it is".

Portland Mini Market in South Norwood breached every one of its licensing conditions and recruited an asylum applicant with no right to work in the UK, Croydon's licensing officer said.

Police have asked Croydon Council to revoke the license of the shop, in Market Parade, Portland Road.

Officers began investigating the shop in August after the immigration status of a man working alone behind the counter "raised suspicion", according to documents submitted to the council's licensing committee.

The employee gave false details to Home Office immigration enforcement officers, but they later learned he was an asylum applicant who had been denied the right to work in the country as part of his leave to remain.

He admitted he had been working in the shop five days a week for the past three months and was earning between £20 and £30 cash per day.

During a visit to the shop on August 27, police asked the shop's premises licence holder and designed supervisor (DPS), Karthigesu Indralingam, to produce the licence.

Darren Rhodes, Croydon licensing officer, said: "Mr Indralingam did not understand what a premises licence was."

Officers also learned the shop's CCTV, required as a condition of its licence, was not in use and staff did not know how to work it.

It also did not employ the Challenge 21 system when selling alcohol and did not log refused sales, they found.

PC Rhodes said: "The venue is not being run properly. The nominated DPS is absent most of the time and, in any event, does not have sufficient knowledge to train any employee in the Licensing Act because by his own admission he does not know what it is.

"Not one single licence condition is being adhered to and the person running the shop five days per week has no entitlement to work in the UK.

"The Metropolitan Police consider this to be a very serious situation and based on the evidence supplied above it requested that the premises licence is revoked."

According to police documents, Mr Indralingam told officers responsibility for running the shop lay with his manager, who was away in Sri Lanka. He claimed the asylum-seeker did not work there. 

The committee will review the shop's licence at a meeting on Wednesday.

Councillors could opt to revoke or suspend the licence or remove Mr Indralingam as supervisor.

No one from the shop could be reached for comment today.