A FEMALE customer of lap-dancing club Spearmint Rhino has backed an application to renew its Sex Establishment Licence in Bournemouth.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons and says she has visited the Yelverton Road strip bar “on numerous occasions”, has written to the council praising “the incredibly professional” staff and blasting the “unfair misconceptions” attached to the industry.

The letter comes after Spearmint Rhino bosses were put “on probation” by councillors in December last year following a string of allegations accusing dancers and managers of “exploiting customers”. This included one man with learning difficulties who said he spent £6,000 on his credit card in just one visit without realising.

These accusations were “hotly contested” by a barrister hired by the club to represent them in a six-hour licensing board meeting, where he said each transaction was watched by a CCTV camera and required a thumb print, signature and PIN number.

Now the woman's letter will be considered at another meeting tomorrow, to be chaired by Cllr Andrew Morgan, when councillors will decide whether the club's Sex Establishment Licence should be renewed.

She said that Spearmint Rhino, which had the application submitted on its behalf by Sassy Productions Limited, “isn’t sleazy in the slightest”.

“I feel infinitely safer at or near Spearmint Rhino than any of the regular clubs in the town centre,” she said. “I find it commendable that I never detected any rudeness at all when turning down the offer of a dance, and have never been at all pressured into spending money on dances.”

She described the security staff as “wonderful” and recounted how they “went to the trouble” to give her a tour on her first visit.

“I believe that Spearmint Rhino manages to avoid problems with anti-social behaviour that are commonplace at venues that don’t offer topless dancing,” the woman added.

There has been an objection to the application from one resident, who said: “The town is a family resort and this type of adult entertainment degrades our beautiful town and gives off the completely wrong messages to our youth.”

The meeting will be held on September 3 at 9.45am in the Royal Hampshire Committee Room at Bournemouth’s town hall.