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There were no declarations of interest.

At the request of the Chair, Mr Tom Lewis, Team Leader – Licensing and Health & Safety, introduced the report which was seeking revocation of the special treatment licence for Genesis Thai Beauty Spa, Unit 2 Nagpal House, 1 Gunthorpe Street, London E1 7QX. He explained that on 13 April 2017 a petition containing 101 signatures from local residents from the Liverpool Street area was received by the Council from the Corporation of London. The petition requested that all massage premises in the area be investigated for compliance with their licence conditions.

It was noted that two test purchases had been carried out at the premises, on 15 October 2021 and 29 October 2021 and, on both occasions, services of a sexual nature were offered. Members were referred to the statements from the test purchasers detailing their account of the test purchase.

Mr Lewis informed the Committee that correspondence had been received from the Premises Licence Holder, Ms Chanita King and her Legal Representative following notification of this hearing and these were included in the supplemental agenda on pages 3-6. It was noted that the premises licence holder had requested that the Authority cancels the licence. He stated that under the London Local Authorities 1991 Act, the Council may at the request of the licence holder cancel the licence. However, it was the Licensing Authority’s view the word ‘may’ did not mean that they had to cancel the licence and given that this formal request had only been received a few days ago, Officers were of the view that the evidence contained in the report warranted the revocation of the licence and the Committee should proceed to determine the application.

Mr Lewis concluded that the Committee is recommended to revoke this licence under section 8 of the London Local Authorities (e) the premises have been or are being improperly conducted. He expressed concerns that providing services of a sexual nature can amount to prostitution and can be often linked to criminal activities such as human trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable females, and give rise to an increased risk of spreading infectious diseases. 

Finally, it was noted that due to the findings from the test purchases, the Authority were now looking to take legal action against the premises licence holder for breach of their licence.

There were no questions from Members.

There were no other interested parties present to make a representation, therefore the Chair announced that the Committee would deliberate after the meeting and the decision would be sent out in writing.

DECISION

The Licensing Committee considered an application by the Licensing and Safety Team seeking the revocation of the special treatment licence held by Genesis New World Aldgate Ltd. in respect of Genesis Thai Beauty Spa, Unit 2 Nagpal House, 1 Gunthorpe Street, London, E1 (“the Premises”). The basis of the application was that two test purchases carried out in October 2021 had resulted in sexual services being offered by therapists.

The Committee was made aware that the licence holder  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.1

At the request of the Chair, Mr Kamal Miah, Environmental Health Officer, introduced the report seeking a revocation of the special treatment licence for Natural Treatment, 35 Artillery Lane, London E1 7LP. He also explained that following on from the petition in 2017 from residents, it has been a priority to make sure that licensed premises are investigated and make sure they are operating in accordance with law. Therefore, it was taken upon officers to investigate premises and carry out mystery shoppers. It was noted that test purchases were carried out at this premises because it had been linked to sexual services that in the past based on Internet search under a different licence holder and therefore selected for a test purchase.

Mr Miah explained that test purchases were carried out on 15^th and 29^th October 2021 and, on both occasions during the massage, services of a sexual nature were offered to the test purchaser. A detailed account of the test purchases can be found on pages 123-131 of the agenda. It was also noted that on 22^nd March 2022, the Council became aware that the therapists who offered the sexual services during the test purchases has not been approved by the Council to carry out massage treatments.

Mr Miah concluded that the licence was renewed on 17^th June 2022. However, now that the premises is associated to services of a sexual nature, he recommended that the licence be revoked by the Committee.

The Committee then heard from Ms Yani Wang, Premises Licence Holder. She read through a statement that she circulated at the meeting (the statement can be found in the tabled papers published as part of a supplemental agenda. She referred to having been “cheated” by the previous owner when she purchased the business in March 2020. Her statement referred to having heard of sexual services being offered in massage parlours but was nothing to do with her, but she now “…had to deal with the problem, the problem that was left over from the previous owner.”

Ms. Wang spoke to her thirty years’ of experience in this industry. She suggested it should be the masseuses who should be regulated and suffer the risk of being unable to work if they offered sexual services, rather than penalising the employer. She accepted that there was a high risk of sexual services being offered but also accepted that her employees were doing what others do and they were just unlucky. She also suggested some form of collusion between officers and premises. In a second statement, Ms. Wang provided screenshots of messages between her and the massage therapist, in which the therapist denied offering the services. Ms. Wang said she did not believe that either the test purchaser or her massage therapist would lie. She suggested that she should have been made aware much sooner of the incidents, than having wait for a hearing to be conducted by the Council. Statement have been included as part of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.2

At the request of the Chair, Mr Amran Ali, Health & Safety Officer Environmental Health Officer, introduced the report seeking a revocation of the special treatment licence for Vanilla Thai Massage, 1 Whites Row, London E1 7NF.  He explained that the Committee is recommended to consider revocation of the licence on the basis that the business was found to be offering services of a sexual nature. It was noted on 15^th & 29^th October 2021 test purchases were carried out by professional surveillance company and found that services of a sexual nature was being offered by the therapist and the statement of the test purchaser can be found on page 180 of the agenda.

Mr Ali pointed out that when businesses are selected for the test purchasing exercise the Council appoints a professional surveillance company and provides a list of the premises to the company and that it was the surveillance company that appoint individuals to go to the premises at their own time within a time period to conduct the visit and there is no information provided to the Council Officers beforehand as to which premises they're going to and on what day. It was also noted that a follow up compliance visit was carried out on the 27^th January 2021 by Officers from the Council, two massage therapists were present at the premises one of whom was not listed as a therapist nor any qualifications certificates were provided and this was a breach of condition 6 of the standard conditions.

Mr Ali informed the Committee that Ms Cheung Lai Kwan’s (Premise Licence Holder) Legal Representative had been in contact with him and had informed him that his client had been in Hong Kong since December 2009 and a copy of the e-mail can be seen on page 7 of the supplemental agenda pack. In the e-mail the solicitor representing the licensee stated that she was in December since 2019 and currently still in Hong Kong, he also stated that following the findings of the test purchases she had decided to sell the business and the business was sold on the 11th of April 2022. The Legal Representative since then had sent another email today to confirm that the licensee now wishes for her licence to be cancelled. Mr Ali explained that there was insufficient time to process that request hence why this report has been brought to the Committee with a recommendation to revoke the licence.

Mr Ali concluded that such sexual services do resemble services of prostitution and can often be linked with other criminal activities such as human trafficking, exploitation of vulnerable females, and money laundering, as well as giving rise to an increased risk of spreading infectious diseases. These activities risked tarnishing the reputation of Tower Hamlets.

There were no questions from Members.

There were no other interested parties present to make a representation. Therefore the Chair announced that the Committee would deliberate after the meeting and the decision would be sent out in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.3