Ms Natalie Thompson, Principal Environmental Health Officer informed Members the application before them was to consider the revocation of a Special Treatment Licence for Health and Beauty Centre, 1 Gunthorpe Street London E1 7RG.

Ms Thompson stated that the Licensing Authority was requesting the Committee to revoke the licence following evidence that the Licence Holder, Mr Gary Bugby had abdicated his responsibilities in running and managing his business and that the former occupants, Mr Wai Ming Yau and Mrs Chak Wa Yiu were trading from the premises.

In view of the fact that the former occupants, Mr Wai Ming Yau and Mrs Chak Wa Yiu had been successfully prosecuted under the London Local Authorities Act 1991 on the 26^th March 2019 and were both found guilty of using 1 Gunthrope Street, London E1 as an establishment for special treatments without a special treatment licence, the Responsible Authority do not consider them to be fit and proper persons to hold such a licence.

Ms Natalie Thompson provided Members with a detailed account of the investigation her colleague Mr Lekan Olomo had undertaken. She said the team had conducted an investigation of the premises and had reason to believe the previous occupants were running the establishment. Evidence corroborating this, included the email from Mr Gary Bugby at Appendix LOL4 whereby he states another person is running the premises and the solicitors’ letter received via Mr Bobby Nagpal, the freeholder of 1 Gunthrope Street, at appendix LOL5 which states his client is trading “from the premises under the premises licence in situ.” This is a breach of Section 8c of the London Local Authorities Act 1991 (“the act”).

Further evidence was found of therapists being employed by Mr Gary Bugby without the knowledge or approval of the Council in breach of Regulation 8a and 8c made under Section 10(1) of the Act which prescribes standard conditions for Annual Treatment Licences. Ms Thompson referred Members to Appendix LOL6 and LOL7 which referred to the emails sent to Mr Bugby, who had failed to respond.

Ms Thompson stated the Licence Holder, Mr Gary Bugby had breached the conditions of the licence and asked Members of the Licensing Committee to revoke the Licence based on the evidence before them.

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Members of the Committee asked questions in relation to the application and in response the following was noted:

·         The onus is on the Licence Holder to inform the Council of any change of therapists employed. Therapists must be approved by the Council and have the correct qualifications to carry out special treatments.

·         In response to the query raised relating to how long Mr Bugby had been absent from the business, Ms Thompson clarified that he left in March 2019, as per the email at Appendix LOL4. It appeared Mr Bugby had no intention of coming back. 

·         With regards to the former occupants, the solicitors email at appendix LOL5 confirmed Mr Yau was trading from the premises under Mr Bugby’s licence.

Members adjourned the meeting at 18:47 hours to deliberate and reconvened at 18:50 hours.

Accordingly, the Committee unanimously

RESOLVED

That the Application for the revocation of a Special Treatment Licence, under the London Local Authorities Act 1991 for Health and Beauty Centre, 1 Gunthorpe Street, London E1 7RG be REVOKED for the following reasons:

      i.        The licence holder is in breach of Regulation 6A of the Regulations made by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets under Section 10 (1) of the London Local Authorities Act 1991 prescribing the standard conditions for Annual Special Treatment in that the “licensee or some responsible person nominated by him in writing for the purpose shall be in charge of, and upon, the licensed premises during the whole time that they are open to the public.”  Members concurred Mr Bugby was in breach of this condition by allowing Mr Yau to trade from the premises. In light of Mr Yau’s conviction he is not considered to be a fit and proper person to hold a licence or to be in charge of the licensed premises.

    ii.        The licence holder is in breach of Regulation 8A of the Regulations made by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets under Section 10 (1) of the London Local Authorities Act prescribing the standard conditions for Annual Treatment in that ‘treatment shall only be given by qualified persons who have been approved by the Council...”. Members concluded from the evidence before them that Mr Bugby had not employed suitably qualified staff to carry out special treatments.

The Licensing Committee resolved as per paragraph 4.4 of the report, the following grounds for revocation applied, under the London Local Authorities Act 1991:

(c)        the persons concerned or intended to be concerned in the conduct or management of the premises used for special treatment could be reasonably regarding as not being fit and proper persons to hold such a license, and

(d)       the persons giving the special treatment are not suitably qualified.