A restaurant owner caught “dispensing alcohol straight into his friend’s mouth”, permitting smoking inside one of his venues and holding “stoppy backs” has had his application for a late night gig starring DJ Craig Charles refused.
But Som Emadi, owner of The Purple Pig - which has restaurants in Yarm and Harrogate as well as its Linthorpe Road venue - said the “intimate” gig will still go ahead - he will just hold it earlier to keep within the licensing rules.
Mr Emadi had applied for a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) from Middlesbrough Council in order to hold the event on Saturday, March 14 from midnight to 4am.
But at a Middlesbrough Council licensing subcommittee meeting held today to listen to evidence from Blake Brunskill, accounts manager for The Purple Pig, and Licensing Sergeant Paul Higgins, from Cleveland Police, the panel - chaired by Councillor Bernie Taylor - refused the application.
Mr Brunskill told the panel prior to its decision that the gig was going to be an “intimate event” with up to 150 people in the upper room of the venue.
He added that the proceeds of the first 50 tickets - £500 - would be donated to Zoe’s Place baby hospice in Normanby.
In January a licensing officer visited the Middlesbrough premises and found that a number of conditions had not been complied with at that time, including displaying notices of a Challenge 25 policy and for patrons to leave the venue quietly, CCTV to have footage of 31 days and training records.
Mr Brunskill said all of the above conditions had now been put in place.
Sgt Higgins told the panel about a “stoppy back” until 4am at the Yarm restaurant in September, which local residents had complained about.
Mr Brunskill said it had been a staff party and no alcohol was sold after hours and they “hadn’t realised how late it was”.
“We did upset a lot of residents, it wasn’t the wisest of ideas,” said Mr Brunskill.
As it was the first incident of this type, the police decided to give them a formal warning.
Sgt Higgins said that in January Harrogate Police contacted Cleveland Police’s licensing team after Mr Emadi was “dispensing alcohol into his friend’s mouth” - a breach of the licensing conditions and “smoking was being permitted” inside the Harrogate venue.
Police requested copies of CCTV footage but were “given blank discs” due to a fault with the system.
Sgt Higgins said: “It is very rare that we oppose TENs, we usually can negotiate with premises.
“But such are the concerns we have at how these premises are run it was necessary to take this step to oppose it all the way to a committee hearing.”
Cllr Bernie Taylor said after the panel held a private discussion to decide the outcome that they had decided to refuse the application for several reasons including CCTV not working properly and evidence provided by the police.
Mr Emadi said after the meeting: “I respect the decision of the committee. We will hold the Middlesbrough event earlier, from about 9pm to 1am.”
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