At the start of the hearing, it was noted that Mr Umid Hussain Khel was not present at the meeting. Mr Haroon Hamidi and his legal representative were virtually present at the meeting. However it was confirmed that they were not authorised by Mr Khel to speak on his behalf, and as he rather than they was the applicant, Mr Hamidi and his legal representative were not party to the application, and therefore were informed that they were not in the position at law to participate in the meeting in any capacity.

At the request of the Chair, Mr Ibrahim Hussain, Licensing Officer, introduced the report which detailed the application for a review of the premises licence for Tower Hamlets Pizza, 479 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9BU. It was noted that the review had been sought by the Licensing Authority in relation to the prevention of public nuisance and the prevention of crime and disorder. The review was supported by the Metropolitan Police and the Immigration Department.

At the request of the Chair, Ms Kathy Driver, Licensing Officer explained that the Licensing Authority were seeking revocation of the licence. She believed that the evidence showed that imposition of additional conditions would not suffice to address concerns over crime and disorder and public nuisance that had taken place at the premises. It was noted that the report included evidence that the premises had been operating beyond licensed hours and advertising licensable activities as being available beyond licensed hours. 

It was noted that the premises has had a licence since 16^th January 2018 with Mr Haroon Hamidi as the previous premises licence holder. The premises licence was transferred to Mr Umid Khel on 28^th May 2022. The Licensing Authority started to receive reports and complaints from local residents from 7^th June 2021, stating that the premises was operating 24 hours a day. Ms Driver said that website adverts were found advertising the premises as being open from 11:00 hours to 04:30 hours, seven days a week.

Ms Driver confirmed that Mr Hamidi had been the premises licence holder at the time of the complaint and a warning letter was sent to Mr Hamidi on 7^th June 2021. Members were referred to the review application in the agenda on pages 29-33 detailing the changes in operation and the number of businesses operating from the premises all advertising late night refreshments till 04:30 hours. It was noted that the licensed for these premises ended at 02:00 hours.

Mr Khel had been the premises licence holder todate since the licence transfer 28^th May 2022. A number of failed test purchases were made, and a series of warning letters were sent to Mr Khel and,  prior to the licence transfer, Mr Hamidi   in relation to the following dates: -

-       7^th June 2021

-       31^st March 2022

-       12^th April 2022

-       13^th May 2022

-       28^th May 2022

-       30^th June 2022

It was confirmed that following requests for CCTV footage, none were supplied, nor were there any responses from the premises licence holder, although a member of staff did contact the Licensing Team to say that they had no CCTV footage. The premises licence holder was invited to attend the Council offices for an interview under caution in respect of offences arising from the carrying on of licensable activities beyond licensed hours, but the premises licence holder did not attend.

Further test purchases were failed by the business on 11^th September 2021, 2^nd April 2022 and 28^th May 2022.  On 8^th October 2022 a further test purchase was made, in relation to which officers were told to order online, at an hour beyond 2.00am. It was also noted although the business had previously applied  for longer hours to provide late night refreshment  that had been refused, so the business remained restricted to the licensed hours previously set.

Ms Driver concluded that the premises licence holder had been in charge when the business failed test purchases on four occasions, he was unsuitable to run licensed premises, there were no additional conditions could be added to sufficiently address the concerns raised, and therefore the Licensing Authority were seeking revocation of the licence. It was noted that despite warnings the premises licence holder continued to operate beyond his licensed hours or provide CCTV footage on request, which was also a breach of the conditions on the licence. She suggested that the change of operator during the history of all of the stated defaults had been an attempt to shift responsibility.

Members then heard from PC Mark Perry, Metropolitan Police who agreed with what was said by Ms Driver, commenting that the premises continues to operate beyond licensed hours despite warnings, has failed to comply with conditions, and therefore has failed to uphold the Licensing Objectives to the extent that there were no conditions that could be imposed which would sufficiently address the non-compliances mentioned. The business had such a poor track record of non-compliance, that it was pointless to restrict or reduce the hours, and therefore there was no choice but to revoke the licence.

In response to questions the following was noted: -

-       That the premises was still advertising as being open until 4.30am. 

-       The background to the review application followed a pattern of licensing breaches of conditions, warning letters, and test purchases failed , during a period in which there had been a number of different companies operating from the premises, making it difficult to maintain a process of enforcement, in that warnings and such like had had be repeated several times. The review application was a last resort.

-       That the review application was hand delivered to the premises and no response had been received from the current premises licence holder Mr Khel, the only communication received regarding the review application having been yesterday from Mr Hamidi, and communication from a member of staff calling to say that there was no CCTV footage.

Concluding remarks were made.

The Licensing Objectives

In considering the application, Members were required to consider the same in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003 (as amended), the Licensing Objectives, the Home Office Guidance and the Council’s Statement of Licensing Policy and in particular to have regard to the promotion of the four licencing objectives:

·       The Prevention of Crime and Disorder;

·       Public Safety;

·       The Prevention of Public Nuisance; and

·       The Protection of Children from Harm.

Consideration

The Sub-Committee considered an application for review by Kathy Driver representing the Licensing Authority in relation to the late night refreshment licence for Tower Hamlets Pizza, 479 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9BU. The Premises are currently authorised for the provision of late night refreshments as follows:

Sunday to Tuesday            23:00 hours to 01:00 hours (the following day)

Friday and Saturday          23:00 hours to 02:00 hours (the following day)

From the evidence presented by Ms. Driver and PC Mark Perry, Metropolitan Police the Sub-Committee were very concerned about the number of repeated offences of trading past the existing licensed hours. This concern was exacerbated by the fact that from the evidence presented with the application, the business was advertising the sale of hot food beyond licensed hours on its website, as well as via online delivery platforms.

The Sub-Committee also considered evidence of noise disturbance to local residents from persons attending the premises beyond the licensed hours for late night refreshment, so as to give rise to public nuisance. 

The Sub-Committee were disappointed that the Premises Licence Holder, Mr. Khel was absent from this meeting without explanation, as this meant that they were unable to ask him questions about why the above non-compliances had occurred. The decision made therefore had to be without having any evidence from Mr. Khel. The Sub-Committee decision was made on the basis of the evidence for the application. There was no basis for considering an adjournment given to the Sub-Committee by the Premises Licence Holder, Mr. Khel, and under regulation 20 of the Licensing Act 2003 (Hearings) Regulations 2005, where a party who has not indicated that they will not be attending a Licensing Sub-Committee hearing, fails to attend or be represented at the hearing, the Sub-Committee may proceed in that party’s absence. Whilst noting the attendance of Mr. and Mrs. Hamidi and the trainee lawyer representing them, the Sub-Committee could not hear from any of those individuals, because none of them could say that they had authorisation from Mr. Khel to speak on his behalf, and the trainee lawyer confirmed that his instructions came from Mr. and Mrs. Hamidi, hence none of these individuals could be said to represent Mr. Khel. 

Due to the repeated failure to keep to the licensed hours for the provision of late night refreshment, and failure to uphold the licensing objectives, the Sub Committee had no trust or confidence in the Premises Licence Holder’s ability to continue to operate under the licence without the issues stated above recurring. So serious was this, that in the circumstances, the Sub-Committee felt that nothing short of revocation of the licence would ensure that the licensing objectives would no longer be compromised by the Premises Licence Holder’s business.  premises licence with immediate effect.

Accordingly, the Sub Committee unanimously;

RESOLVED

That the application for a review of the premises licence for Tower Hamlets Pizza, 479 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9BU be GRANTED with the revocation of the premise licence with immediate effect.