The Licensing Panel were asked to consider an application for a review of the premises licence for the The King’s Head, King Street, Gravesend, DA12 2EB.

 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and went through the process he intended to follow.  He explained that once everyone had made their submissions and all questions had been answered, the hearing would close to all parties except for the Panel and the Committee Services Officer (for minutes writing purposes only) for the panel to consider their decision.

 

As the Licensing Panel had already heard the Part A evidence submitted by both Kent  Police and the Kings Head at the expedited review hearing on 15 October 2021 and the hearing to discuss interim steps on the 25 October 2021, the Chair asked that both parties be brief on their introductions.

 

The Barrister pointed out that only two of the three Members of the Panel had sat on the previous two hearings and asked for the Chairs approval to go through the main points raised.

 

The Chair agreed and allowed the Kent Police and the Barrister to summarise the main points made at the previous two hearings surrounding the incidents that led to the review of the premises licence. 

 

An expedited hearing was held on 15 October 2021, where the Licensing Panel reviewed the papers submitted by Kent Police and their supporting evidence. The Panel made the decision to suspend the premises licence with immediate effect. 

 

A representation was received on 22 October 2021, from the premises licence holder, Mr Ismail Sucu and his lawyer Mr Jon Payne and further CCTV evidence was submitted. Another hearing was held on the 25 October 2021 to discuss interim steps and the Panel decided to reinstate the licence immediately with restricted conditions of-

 

• The licensable activities will stop at 11.30pm with the premises closed by midnight until we hear a full review Hearing
• A new DPS must be appointed and the application to be received by the Licensing Authority within 3 working days from the date of this hearing
• A reminder that all door staff had to be SIA registered

 

Following the introductions by both parties, the Chair moved the meeting into Part B to discuss the supplementary evidence provided by the Kent Police and the Kings Head legal team.

 

The Police called Phil Campbell into the meeting as a witness against the Kings head. Phil Campbell outlined his witness statement to the Panel and both parties as well as the Members, had their questions answered.

 

The Police played three videos showing CCTV footage that showed incidents occurring inside or near the premises known as The Kings head; the videos were dated:

 

1.         10 October 2021 at 02:58am – An incident occurred immediately outside the         premises entrance

2.         20 September – 01:40am – An incident occurred inside the beer garden of the      premises

3.         26 October at 02:50am – An incident occurred across the road from the premises

 

In light of the evidence presented, the Police asked for the revocation of the premises Licence for the Kings Head. If the Panel were not minded to revoke the Premises Licence then the Police would suggest the following conditions be added to their Premises Licence:

 

1.         Suspension of the Premises Licence for one month, effective immediately, so that            the Premises had appropriate time to retrain staff and implement new procedures       for the Premises. Although it had been offered voluntarily, the Police asked that the      Panel impose it as ruling by the Panel

2.         The removal of the current staff for the door security with a new condition added that        specified that any new door security staff hired had to be part of an approved SIA    security contract

3.         All customers must be searched prior to entering the premises after 21:00 hours until       closing every Friday and Saturday night

4.         One of the SIA registered door security staff must be a female so that the searching         of female customers could be conducted

5.         All SIA registered door security staff must commence duty at 21:00 hours; there   should be no staggered starting times so that all four staff were working in the     premises at once

6.         All SIA registered door security staff must wear body cameras from 21:00 hours until        closing every Friday and Saturday night

7.         All other proposals listed in the report submitted by Andrew Newman must be added        to the Premises Licence  

 

The Panel Members had their questions answered by the Police.

 

The Barrister and the Licensing Consultant addressed the Panel.

 

The Barrister advised that they were prepared to Shutdown the Premises for one month in order to implement new procedures and retrain staff and add the following conditions to their Premises Licence:

 

1.         The Premise Licence Holder(s) shall engage the services of an Independent         Licensing Consultant to undertake spot checks on the premises on a monthly basis for a period of 2 years.

2.         The report of the Independent Consultant following each visit shall be submitted to           the Council within 5 working days of the visit taking place

3.         The DPS must hold, at the minimum, the Level 2 BIIAB Award for Designated       Premises Supervisors (or its professionally recognised equivalent) If the DPS does   not already hold this award it must be obtained within 3 months. The Council must be   provided with a copy of the DPS award certificate

4.         The CCTV Condition would be made stronger and amended to include: “All entry and      exit points must be covered enabling frontal identification of every person entering in any light condition

5.         CCTV must cover every area open to patrons (except the toilets) as far

            as is reasonably practicable

6.         The employment of a new SIA registered Company for door security staff

7.         The Premise would benefit from further training/refreshers including preventing and          managing incidents (including serious crime and disorder) at least 6 monthly by an    Independent provider

8.         Recommend a Critical Incidents Policy (There should be sufficient prevention       measures in the other Policies) This could be called dealing with incidents likely to lead to violence&/or disorder

9.         Recommend a crime scene preservation policy & responsible drinking

            policy

10.       A minimum of 3 staff to be trained as Personal Licence Holders – it was clarified by          Mr Newman the Licencing consultant that this was intended to be three personal           licence holders in addition to Mr Ismail Sucu

11.       Last entry to the premises at 02:00am; no customer is allowed to enter the Premises        after 02:00am 

 

The Barrister advised that the Kings head were happy to include the following conditions proposed by the Police:

 

1.         The removal of the current staff for the door security with a new condition added that        specified that any new door security staff hired had to be part of an approved SIA    security contract

2.         All customers must be searched prior to entering the premises after 21:00 hours until       closing every Friday and Saturday night

3.         One of the SIA registered door security staff must be a female so that the searching         of female customers could be conducted

4.         All SIA registered door security staff must commence duty at 21:00 hours; there   should be no staggered starting times so that all four staff were working in the     premises at once

5.         All SIA registered door security staff must wear body cameras from 21:00 hours until        closing every Friday and Saturday night

 

The Barrister asked for a three-month grace period to allow another member of staff to be trained as a Personal Licence Holder and receive their certification from the local authority.

 

Members had their questions answered by the Barrister.

 

The Chair allowed both parties to sum up their arguments to the Panel.

 

The meeting adjourned at 16:16pm to deliberate.

 

The meeting re-adjourned at 16:40pm.

 

Determination

 

The Chair advised that, in coming to their decision, the Panel considered all the evidence presented by the Police report, the CCTV evidence, the evidence given by the Kings head and the evidence from the previous two hearings. The panel felt  the Licence holder had failed to up hold three of the Licensing objectives namely the prevention of crime and disorder, the protection of public safety and the prevention of public nuisance. 

 

However the Panel noted that the License Holder had engaged a Licensing consultant who had put forward a number of recommendations which they were accepting, they also noted that several of the proposed conditions appeared to have been agreed by the police to address some of the issues which had been seen.

 

The panel accepted taking this into account that revocation of the licence would be unjustified on this occasion, the premises did need to reset and take a fresh approach. They had seen evidence of two serious incidents of a very similar nature in the CCTV clips, however they had placed very little weight on the third incident they had been shown which had taken place away from the premises.

 

Counsel for the License Holder had requested that the condition regarding the number of personal licence holders to be on staff was given a grace period of 3 months to enable that qualification to be obtained and now that this needed to be obtained by 2 additional staff members this three months period would allow the premises to completely reset and open with all the new safeguards in place.

 

Having considered all those matters and advice given, the Panel have decided to suspend the Premises Licence for three months in order for staff to be retrained, new procedures put into place and three relevant Licence Holders put into position along with the following added conditions:

 

1.            The licensable activities will stop at 01:30am and the premises will be closed by   02:00am

2.            No entry to customers after 12:00am

3.            The Premise Licence Holder(s) shall engage the services of an Independent         Licensing Consultant to undertake spot checks on the premises on a monthly basis for a period of 2 years

4.            The report of the Independent Consultant following each visit shall be submitted to           the Council within 5 working days of the visit taking place

5.            The DPS must hold, at the minimum, the Level 2 BIIAB Award for Designated       Premises Supervisors (or its professionally recognised equivalent) If the DPS does   not already hold this award it must be obtained within 3 months. The Council must be   provided with a copy of the DPS award certificate

6.            All entry and exit points must be covered by CCTV enabling frontal identification of           every person entering in any light condition 

7.            CCTV must cover every area open to patrons (except the toilets) as far as is         reasonably practicable

8.            All current door staff must be replaced by a new team from a SIA registered security        company

9.            All customers must be searched prior to entering the premises after 21:00 hours until       closing every Friday and Saturday night

10.         One of the SIA registered door security staff must be a female so that the searching         of female customers could be conducted

11.         All SIA registered door security staff must commence duty at 21:00 hours; there   should be no staggered starting times so that all four staff were working in the     premises at once

12.         All SIA registered door security staff must wear body cameras from 21:00 hours until        closing every Friday and Saturday night  

13.         All bar and door staff to receive training/refreshers including preventing and          managing incidents (including serious crime and disorder) at least 6 monthly by an       Independent provider. Records of the training were to be retained for inspection by            Licensing Officers and Kent Police at any time they were requested

14.         A Critical Incidents Policy must be created which covered dealing with incidents likely      to lead to violence&/or disorder

15.         A Crime Scene Preservation Policy & Responsible Drinking Policy must be created          for the Premises

16.         A minimum of 3 staff to be trained as Personal Licence Holders

 

 

Having been reminded by Counsel for the Licence Holder the Chair confirmed that the panel had considered the appropriateness of the interim steps which remained in place. The panel had considered these and felt that whilst they should continue in force they should be revised to reflect the hours of operation which would now be conditioned on the Premises i.e. All Licensable activity to cease at 1.30am with the premises being closed at 2am, further there would be no entry to the premises from 00.00 midnight.

 

The Chair informed the Barrister that a written decision would be sent to them within five working days.