WESTBROOK – The Westbrook businessman who was looking to turn the former Acropolis Restaurant on Elmwood Avenue into a Middle Eastern restaurant has put his plans on hold after the city’s Municipal Officers voted to deny his liquor and food service license applications.

At a meeting on Monday, the Municipal Officers, which consists of the seven city councilors and the mayor, voted 6-2 in each instance to deny the applications of Shai Patel, who was seeking to turn the vacant space into an establishment called Shai’s Lounge. In each case, councilors Suzanne Joyce and Victor Chau voted in favor of the licenses.

At issue behind the denial is a April misdemeanor conviction for the sale and use of drug paraphernalia in Biddeford, stemming from a July 2009 incident at a Getty station owned by Patel. On Patel’s application, he indicated that he had not been convicted of any crime in the past 10 years, and the councilors based their denial on both the conviction and its omission from the applications.

On Wednesday morning, Patel said he was not present at the station when the incident in question occurred. He said that an employee at the store, which sold glass pipes for tobacco use, sold the item in question to an undercover police officer.

Patel said that when he arrived at the store, police had already seized his inventory and no drugs were found in the store during the search. He said that he cooperated fully with the investigation because he didn’t want to cause trouble and harm his relationship with the Biddeford police department.

“I didn’t want to fight the cops,” he said. “Those are the people who protect my businesses.”

According to Patel, who said he fired the employee involved in the incident the next day, when the case got to court in April, he was not represented by an attorney and he agreed to plead guilty and pay a $310 fine. He said he believed that there was an understanding that the incident would not go on his record, which is why he did not disclose the conviction on the application.

At the meeting on Monday night, City Council President Brendan Rielly said that he could not support the applications because of the nondisclosure.

“My concern with this tonight is we depend on our applications for accurate information,” he said. “It’s difficult to understand how someone could be mistaken about a conviction especially one as recent (as the one discovered in the background check on Patel).”

City Councilor Paul Emery also voted to deny the licenses, but he had slightly different reasoning. While he sympathized with Patel, he said he didn’t want to make an exception in this case and deny other applicants the same consideration in the future.

“I feel personally that we must at all times present a sense of fairness,” he said.

Patel said while he is discouraged with the outcome of the meeting on Monday, he still believes in the concept he has in mind for the space, saying it would be unique to the city.

Patel said he has already made a sizable investment in specialized food preparation equipment for the space and he said that he believed that another member of his family would reapply for the necessary licenses so the restaurant can open.

“This is a very good site,” he said. “(And) this is something different. I wish they could have worked with me on this.”