Police and trading standards are opposing a premises licence at a King's Lynn shop, claiming the applicants are involved in the sale of illicit alcohol and tobacco in Lincolnshire.

West Norfolk Council's licensing sub-committee will today decide whether a licence should be given to Baltic Store in Old Sunway.

An application from Boston-based Litexport Limited, which would have enabled the store to sell alcohol for off-site consumption from 8am until 10pm seven days a week, was rejected by the borough council in March.

The new application, seeking the same times, was submitted by Oksana Kulikovskaja, who is the wife of Litexport's owner, Jurij Kravcuk.

In agenda papers published ahead of today's hearing, she states that CCTV would be installed and staff would be trained to prevent any problems.

But police have called for the bid to be refused, because of concerns over potential crime and disorder, and the findings from the previous proposal.

In a letter from Norfolk police licensing officer Chris Brooks, he said Mr Kravcuk and his associates had several recent convictions.

These include offences for violence, possession of drugs, possession of offensive weapons, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and assault and battery.

In a separate letter, Vicky Conlon, a lead trading standards officer for Norfolk, claimed that intelligence from Lincolnshire police and trading standards officers connected Mr Kravcuk to two shops in Boston which were linked to the supply of illicit alcohol and tobacco.

She added: 'I am concerned that Oksana Kulikovskaja is applying to circumvent the rejection of the original application of the licence by Jurij Kravcuk.'

Ruslan Vaselauskas, a director of Litexport Ltd, did not wish to comment before the hearing, which is at 10am in the council offices in King's Lynn.