Kirkcaldy pub’s licence removed amid claims by police it was front for drug ‘store and supply’ operation.

POLICE: Pub a front to ‘store and supply controlled drugs’

Police have claimed a Kirkcaldy pub was used as a front to “store and supply controlled drugs”.

The statement was made to Fife Licensing Board by Sergeant Gordon Hood of Police Scotland as it removed the licence held by Andrew Holder for the Kirk Inn.

Mr Holder, who worked at the trouble-hit pub on Milton Road, was absent when Fife Licensing Board declared he was not a fit and proper person to hold a licence.

Labour councillor Ryan Smart, who raised a motion to revoke Holder’s personal licence, said the board’s powers had been limited by the fact other individuals involved in running the premises had not held personal licences.

“These people should not have been anywhere near a licensed premises,” he said. “This is absolutely tragic, by the way, that this has got to this point.”

Earlier this year, councillors on the board heard there had been multiple noise complaints, underage teenagers drinking in the bar, a rat infestation, and fights outside the Kirk Inn.

In September last year, police investigating serious and organised crime swooped on the premises.

The bar manager was arrested after £8,600 worth of cannabis and around £1,000 of heroin was found.

Powder traces were discovered and sealed bags containing traces of white and brown powder were found to have been stored in the toilet cistern.

The bar was also found to be infested with vermin on September 21 and the health certificate was revoked, preventing it from selling food.

Mr Hood said officers who attended the premises noticed the pub was in a “very poor state” and “posed a serious risk to health”.

Councillors heard Mr Holder, who lived in the Kirk Inn while he worked there, had been difficult to contact.

He had given the council a new address but letters sent out to him at this address had been returned.

The Kirk Inn is owned by James Watson and his father-in-law David Elliot, who rented the pub to Mr Holder.

At a hearing in January, when the bar’s licence was suspended, it was revealed the owners had been trying to remove Mr Holden since September but were having difficulties.

“These people should not have been anywhere near a licensed premises. This is absolutely tragic, by the way, that this has got to this point. RYAN SMART