‘Vicious’ attack on customer
BOY KICKED, PUNCHED AND STAMPED ON 20 TIMES IN ASSAULT BY TAKEWAY BOSSES LASTING ‘MORE THAN SEVEN MINUTES’ LICENSING HEARING TOLD
TAKEAWAY management carried out a “vicious” assault on a teenage customer, stamping, kicking and punching him more than 20 times, say police.
Officers say CCTV footage of the incident was “damning”.
Israrr Ashraf and his brother Amjad Ashraf, who run Leeroy’s Kebab House in Tamworth Road, Long Eaton, carried out the “vicious and prolonged” attack for more than seven minutes in the early hours of September 1 last year.
CCTV footage allegedly shows other staff getting involved, holding the teenager down on the floor, while he was being beaten.
The incident stemmed from a disagreement over payment for a bottle of water, with police saying there appears to have been little provocation or justification for the attack.
The incident has been detailed in a police report to Erewash Borough Council’s licensing panel, before a public hearing on Thursday.
The police have requested that, due to the incident, the takeaway’s late-night refreshment licence should be revoked “to ensure the safety of members of the public”.
This would mean the venue cannot sell hot food or drink after 11pm.
It currently has permission to do this until 1am Sunday to Thursday and until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays.
The licensing hearing will decide whether or not to revoke the licence and could also decide to attach further restrictions to it aimed at avoiding any further incidents.
The committee also has the power to revoke the venue’s entire premises licence, in which case it would have to close.
Leeroy’s has been approached for comment.
Neither of the takeaway managers have been charged or arrested, but the report details voluntary interviews have been held.
The report says that at 1.14am on September 1, police received a call from resident claiming the owner of Leeroy’s Kebab House was beating someone inside their shop and that there were three men versus one male. The caller claimed the owners would delete the CCTV footage. Police included a transcript of this call in the report.
One minute later, the police received a second call, this time from licence holder Israrr Ashraf, claiming an “extremely” drunk male was fighting with staff and refusing to leave and that they had refused to serve him.
The call handler could hear the “disturbance” in the background.
When police arrived at 1.22am they found a 17-yearold drifting in and out of consciousness while being restrained on the floor by takeaway staff.
Police arrested the “vulnerable” teenager and took him to hospital to assess his injuries, which included a chipped tooth.
The police requested the takeaway’s CCTV footage on October 22, nearly two months after the incident, and received it on November 10.
The police report alleges: “It is clear from the CCTV that both the premises licence holder, Israrr Ashraf, and the manager of the premises, Amjad Ashraf, are complicit in a vicious and prolonged assault on a member of the public within the takeaway.”
The alleged attack happened after the shop had closed, with CCTV footage, with sound, showing the drunk teenager and his friend asking the venue to briefly reopen so he could get some food.
Shortly after, the teenager returns, asking for a bottle of water for his friend, who had been sick, and saying his friend had paid for a bottle of water.
This then escalates very rapidly, starting with shouting, says the report.
The report says: “In the CCTV the premises licence holder and his brother, who is manager of the premises, can be seen to stamp on, kick and punch the male over 20 times.”
A written transcript of the CCTV footage, supplied by police in the report, alleges that the takeaway manager “grabs the injured party (the teenager) by the neck” and then proceeds to “punch the injured party to the head and shoulders eight times”.
The transcript claims the takeaway’s premises licence holder then “stamps down on the midriff of the injured party, shouting ‘boom,’ he then stamps on him again in the same place, while Amjad Ashraf has him held to the floor”.
Throughout the incident, the teenager is heard repeatedly screaming “let me go”, “whilst he is on the floor in the foetal position being assaulted”, according to the report.
During the incident the report claims the manager is seen “stamping on the back of the injured party’s head”.
The premises’ licensee is recorded punching the teen “to the rib area of his body three times” and at one stage “grabs the waistband of his (the teenager’s) trousers, pulling him back into the premises” as he attempted to “crawl towards the door”.
The report says the two brothers who run the premises stamped, kicked and punched the teenager more than 20 times, saying the “prolonged” attack continued for seven minutes.
It says: “The offenders appeared to think themselves immune to the repercussions of their actions, carrying on the assault on this male whilst on the phone to the police and in full knowledge that their CCTV was recording the whole incident.
“Both offenders have been interviewed under caution and both gave a no comment interview.
“This in itself shows that there is an unwillingness to cooperate with a police investigation into the matter.”
A further police document says: “This appears to be a nasty assault which could have had more severe consequences.”
It also says the CCTV footage is “damning”.
Another document says: “There was little or no provocation from the injured party, so the likelihood of this type of incident happening again is high.
“It is also apparent from the attack that it is only luck that prevents there being much more serious injuries being inflicted.”
It says staff “utterly failed” to look after a vulnerable customer in a responsible manner.