City lap dancing club loses licence
AABIRMINGHAM lap dancing club has lost its licence after accusations of customers being drugged, fleeced out of £90,000 in credit card overpayments and offered sex in locked VIP rooms.
Legs 11, in Broad Street, had its alcohol licence temporarily suspended on July 4 following a joint police and trading standards raid in June.
Now, at a full licence hearing held on Monday morning, the venue had its alcohol licence revoked by council licensing bosses.
Councillors heard evidence in private and revoked the licence after submissions from West Midlands Police, Birmingham trading standards and Birmingham City Council’s licensing enforcement department.
A different meeting, also held in private on July 14, led to the revocation of the Sexual Entertainment Venue licences for both Legs 11’s Broad Street and the Chinatown venues – banning them from operating as lapdance clubs unless they appeal.
Licensing Sub Committee this week heard the review behind closed doors, but allegations made in a public document claimed the two lapdancing bars in Broad Street and Chinatown are linked to Albanian gangsters, through a sister company.
In revoking the licence, Chairman of Sub Committee A, Barbara Dring, said councillors had been left “deeply concerned” by the evidence and ruled the Broad Street venue had been linked to gangsters in Eastern Europe.
Two customers also claimed they had been secretly drugged, including one who said he later tested positive for methadone. He had also allegedly later found £9,000 taken from his credit card.
Councillor Dring said: “The subcommittee determined that the causes of serious crime and or serious disorder appeared to be orchestrated by an individual who was linked to organised criminal gangs in Eastern Europe, which included, but was not limited to human trafficking and financial fraud.
“The sub-committee had also seen and heard CCTV evidence which demonstrated various breaches of the premises licence to a scale that the subcommittee found deeply concerning.
“We were also presented with compelling evidence that suggested the premises were also responsible for defrauding patrons out of significant sums of money. The sub-committee was shown evidence that on at least one occasion a patron had been offered sexual intercourse.
“The sub-committee had no faith whatsoever that the premises licence holder would take any meaningful steps to properly promote the licensing objectives.”
A police report revealed 17 fraud allegations were made against the venue since 2013, totalling £93,000.
No one from Legs 11 was available for comment at the hearings and nobody has responded to previous requests. West Midlands Police has confirmed that criminal investigations are currently ongoing. No arrests have been made.