THE national owners of a Kilwinning newsagents have had their licence reviewed after their chain was convicted of failing to protect staff after a spate of robberies in England.

Martin McColl’s Stores LTD - which trades as McColl’s - was told to pay out more than £178,000 after admitting a series of health and safety breaches at some of their other stores, according to North Ayrshire Council licensing papers.

The national newsagents chain - which has a store in West Doura Court, Kilwinning - was fined £100,000 and told to pay £78,000 prosecution costs after a two day hearing at Liverpool Crown Court found they had failed to carry out risk assessments for shop staff working alone and had exposing them to a risk of workplace violence, as well as other health and safety breaches.

The charges related to incidents in stores in The Wirral, Merseyside between 2008 and 2012 where staff had been threatened with knives and even a gun.

The conviction led to North Ayrshire Council reviewing the company’s operating licence for the Kilwinning store as well as their shops in Largs, Saltcoats and Ardrossan.

A national newspaper reported that during the hearing in Liverpool Judge Graham Morrow said that the company, which has 12,000 staff across the UK, had fallen “significantly below the standards required” in protecting staff from the risk of harm.

He said: “The lesson must be brought home to managers and shareholders by the size of the fine.

“Those who work for the company must have the confidence that the lesson has been learned.” The company pleaded guilty to four charges of breaching its duty of care to staff in May last year.

Shop staff had raised issues with management about a lack of equipment including lockable doors into back room areas, CCTV and visibility as to who was entering the shop.

Following the conviction in November a McColl’s spokesperson said: “McColl’s accepts the findings of the court for the historic incidents which took place between 2008 and 2012. The well-being and safety of our staff is of the upmost importance to us and prior to these incidents we had committed to review and update our health and safety policies.

“We have already addressed specific issues resulting from the case and have addressed the relevant policy across our nationwide network of stores.” Following a review at North Ayrshire Council’s Licensing Board last week, council chiefs decided no further action would be taken and the company’s licence was upheld.

The Board heard that since the convictions the company had revised its policies in all UK stores.