Police are taking action over the sales of bongs in Camden Town

A JUDGE refused to accept the guilty plea of a Camden Town shopkeeper taken to court over the sale of bongs and pipes after he said he believed they were “just a souvenir”.

Ramalar Munjal, 55, appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Friday accused of selling items – including grinders and king-size smoking papers – at his Camden High Street store that, police said, he knew could be used to “prepare a controlled drug for administration”.

He is the first person to appear in court as part of a new police initiative which aims to end the area’s long-standing reputation as “London’s Amsterdam” by cracking down on the sale of items believed to be linked to drug-taking.

Mr Munjal entered a guilty plea, but district judge Julia Newton intervened and said she could not accept it after he said he did not admit he knew the items were to be used to take illegal drugs.

Prosecutor Kirsten Marenah, for the Crown Prosecution Service, told the court: “The defendant accepted the items were for the preparation or administration of drugs when spoken to by police.”

A translator, responding on Mr Munjal’s behalf, told the court: “He said he doesn’t agree with the fact. He was just selling for a souvenir.”

Judge Newton then intervened and told the court: “I don’t think that’s a correct guilty plea.”

Mr Munjal’s defence counsel, Davies Jones, said the case was complicated by his defendant’s limited grasp of English. He told the court: “His instructions are, ‘I want to plead guilty, I want this matter over and done with’.”

Postponing the hearing, Judge Newton said: “I don’t think the plea of guilty can be accepted on the grounds of what he said at interview and what he is saying now. It’s not just being in possession of the items. The offence is he had to believe the articles would be used.”

His interpreter said: “He didn’t believe the items would be used in that manner.”

His souvenir store was raided by police on November 8 and officers seized bag-loads of suspected drug paraphernalia.

A list of items – said by the Crown Prosecution Service to be in breach of the Misuse of Drugs Act – were read to court, including “bongs, pipes, rips, blunts, king-size Rizla, cone tips and paper tips”.

The court heard that Mr Munjal, along with other shopkeepers in NW1, had received an “enforcement letter” from police telling them to stop selling items believed to be linked to drug-taking.

The letter, seen by the New Journal, said “we need to create a cultural change in the public’s mentality about the Camden Lock area. Having shops filled with cannabis bongs, pipes, grinders and cannabis-branded cigarette papers and lighters only fuels this and creates the culture of tacit acceptance”.

Mr Munjal pleaded not guilty at a later hearing and was released on unconditional bail. A trial will be held in February.