Bournemouth nightclub ordered to close (From Bournemouth Echo)

Bournemouth nightclub ordered to close

7:00am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A NIGHTCLUB plagued by allegations of underage drinking, drug-taking and crime has been ordered to close immediately.

Police applied for a fast-track review of the licence held by the Empire nightclub in Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Dorset.

The club had already had its licence revoked by councillors but had been able to continue trading pending an appeal. Police presented new allegations of serious crime and disorder which convinced councillors to shut the club straight away.

Bournemouth council’s licensing board – which said the club had a reputation for underage drinking – decided the club’s management was unable to run the venue safely or responsibly and was not co-operating with police.

But the club’s proprietor has claimed he has been victimised by police and blamed for problems which are not linked to the club.

Allegations about the club which had already been aired before the licensing board included: persistent underage drinking drug taking, with police swab tests on one occasion recording the highest concentration of drugs ever found in Bournemouth and Poole uncontrollable private parties, resulting in “drunkenness, drug taking and disorder”

reports of a sexual assault at an underage event fighting witnessed by police officers inside the premises.

Police said serious crime and disorder had continued in recent weeks. There were allegations of a link to an assault involving young people away from the premises.

In a letter to the club, the council’s licensing manager Steve Wright said: “It appears that since the licence was revoked by the board on January 21, there has been no improvement in the management’s ability to run the premises safely and responsibly and still no evidence that there is any willingness to work with Dorset Police.”

Empire Club owner Hassan Safaee said he had been victimised by police. He said the latest hearing had involved allegations of an assault which happened away from his premises. “I can’t control the street. I can’t follow them home,” he said.

He claimed the authorities had accepted the word of young people who claimed to have been drinking at the club. “Sixteen-year-olds can destroy a half-a-million pound business,” he said.

He said officials conducting test purchases had never found people being served underage. And he said he would appeal the decision.

“I’m not going to leave it but I’m banging my head against a wall,” he said.