Torero's Mexican Restaurant may have alcohol permits suspended
By John Joyce
Published in News on December 4, 2015 1:46 PM
A surprise investigation by the Wayne County Alcohol Control Board conducted back in August might lead to a suspension of the alcohol permits held by Torero's Mexican Restaurant in downtown Goldsboro.
Wayne ABC Law Enforcement Chief Joe Sadler said he cited Torero's for switching tax stamps on some of its liquor bottles.
"They were transferring mixed beverage tax stamps from bottle to bottle," Sadler said.
Torero's part owner, Miguel Angel Gomez Camacho, has until Dec. 14 to answer an offer in compromise issued by the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission in Raleigh, or face a monetary penalty and suspension of permits, Sadler said.
According to an investigation report submitted to the commission by Sadler following his inspection of Torero's, 112 N. John St., on Aug. 17, Sadler said that two bottles of liquor were displaying stamps issued the previous month. Further investigation revealed the stamps were removed from the original bottles on which they had been placed, and placed on new bottles -- a violation of state law and N.C. ABC Commission protocol.
Sadler discovered the switch was made by inspecting the color of the tax stamps, displayed on the bottles, and by checking for re-stamp codes he would of issued in the event the tax stamps would have been re-issued -- by him -- for some legal purpose.
"In July, I switched the color of the tax stamp from white to green. I noticed a 750 millimeter bottle of Patron Tequila had a green stamp on top of a white stamp ... .," Sadler said in his report. He then found a Jose Cuervo bottle in the same condition.
According to the report, Camacho denied knowledge of the bottles being re-stamped the day the business was inspected. Three days later, at a meeting in Sadler's office, Camacho was shown the two bottles in question and did not deny the bottles had been illegally re-stamped.
"I don't know what happened," Camacho said Thursday. "They used the same label from the store," he said.
Camacho said he purchases all of his liquor from the ABC store over by the Wal-Mart on N. Spence Ave. He had -- but has since removed -- a shot dispenser for Tequila into which his bartenders would load inverted bottles which he said the board required him to keep full.
"Maybe one of my employees, you know, when they were switching the bottles," Camacho said.
N.C. ABC Commission Public Affairs Director Agnes Stevens said an average person buying liquor at an ABC store would not have to have a tax stamp issued for the bottles they purchase.
"For a business purchase, it will have a stamp," she said. "Someone with a mixed beverage permit will pay more than an individual would have to pay," she said.
Businesses purchasing alcohol for resale, such as a bar, are forced to pay taxes on the purchase above the average sales tax an individual pays when purchasing an item. The violation committed when a permit holder switches a tax stamp form one bottle to another is that they are circumventing the process so they do not have to pay the appropriate tax, Stevens explained.
"The penalty is contingent upon what the history is at the location and how long it has been since the last violation," Stevens said.
Once the ABC commission is notified of a citation issued against a business -- be it by N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement, the ABC Board or a local law enforcement agency -- it sends the permit holder what is called an offer in compromise suggesting a fine and suspension commensurate with the violation, Stevens said.
The permit holder can either accept the punishment, sign the offer in compromise and return it, or they can contest it.
"The commission is required to try to settle, rather than have the matter go before an administrative law judge," Stevens said. But if the permit holder contests the offer in compromise, a hearing before a judge will be scheduled and whatever decision comes from that is final.
Sadler said the fine issued against Torero's could be in the range of hundreds of dollars, and its alcohol permits could potentially be suspended for one week, two weeks, or longer.
"It could be for as many as 30 days," Sadler said. "And for every day he isn't selling beer or liquor, he is losing money," he said.
Camacho said he was told he would pay $1,000 or lose his permits for 10 days. He has hired an attorney and is contesting -- for now -- the allegations against him.
"I did nothing illegal," he said.
If pressed, Camacho said he would pay the fine rather than take the suspension and lose 10 days worth of business, but he genuinely feels he did nothing wrong, he said.
"I don't know, buddy. I have my lawyer now, he is talking to them," Camacho said.
Camacho is also scheduled to appear in Wayne County District Court Dec. 9 on the criminal charge of transferring from one container to another.