Man's criminal record ends Synergy Bar's licence bid

A bar has been refused permission to hold all-night discos after police reported the applicant had a string of criminal convictions.

Andrew North applied to the city council for permission to extend the opening hours at Synergy bar, in Church Gate, Leicester, until 10am on six days, spread over this month and next.

But after a licensing hearing at which police highlighted Mr North's convictions, his temporary event notices were refused.

Licensing hearing chairman Councillor John Thomas said: "We are not confident all of the licensing objectives will be observed."

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In a letter to the committee ahead of the hearing, Pc Tejas Mavani, of the city police licensing unit, said Mr North had 24 previous convictions for crimes of violence, driving offences, damage to property and theft.

Bar owner Bimal Parmar was present at the hearing.

He already has a licence to open until 1am, Monday to Thursday, and until 2am on Fridays and Saturday.

Mr North had applied for temporary event notices for "music night/disco" events from 2am to 10am on February 23, 24, and 25 and March 2, 3 and 4. Mr North said one of the events was a surprise birthday part for his niece.

"I was just hiring the venue out on the Saturday and going to get Mr Parmar's licence for the Friday," he said.

"Mr Parmar will have door staff there. The public will be safe.

"We're not even using the Sunday. The only reason we applied for it is when we went down there the lady behind the counter advised us to go for the 24 hours."

Pc Mavani also attended the hearing.

He said Mr North had been at other premises to which police had been called regarding noise complaints.

He said: "With regards to the other premises, we have been there and there have been issues with noise and Mr North has been there and disconnected the speakers. Mr North has been there – whether that has been incidental or behind the bar.

"I'm still not sure what level of participation Mr North had there.

"There is a specific part in the application to state what the event is and in both applications it says 'music/disco'.

"There is nothing about a birthday party.

"It seems an excessively long time to put in an application for each of these nights.

"The crux of this is the application is by Mr North."

He said he was concerned about the "consistency and recentness" of Mr North's convictions.

The members of the committee – councillors Thomas, Baljit Singh and Mustafa Kamal – decided to issue a notice effectively refusing the application.