Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Licensing Sub Committee Hearing Panel - Wednesday, 13th July, 2022 11.00 am

Venue: Exchange meeting room, Exchange Floor, Exchange Building, St Ann's Square entrance, Manchester, M1 4HN

Contact: Ian Smith or Callum Jones 

Items
No. Item

56.

Representation to Interim Measures - Bloom, 100 Bloom Street, Manchester, M1 3LY pdf icon PDF 347 KB

The report of the Head of Planning, Building Control and Licensing is enclosed.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Planning, Building Control and Licensing regarding a Summary Review of the premises licence at Bloom, 100 Bloom Street, Manchester, M1 3LY.

 

The summary review was requested by GMP following an incident at the premises which took place on Wednesday 29 June 2022. The application was made under section 53(B) of the Licensing Act 2003.

 

The Hearing Panel considered the written papers, oral representations of all parties as well as the relevant legislation.

 

GMP addressed the Hearing Panel and gave details of the reasons for their original review application, believing that a serious crime had taken place at the premises. GMP stated that during the early hours of Wednesday 29th June 2022, a 14-year-old male had gained entry to the premises. At around 4.15am, the male approached a group of adult females and offered to sell them drugs. One of them accepted and went to the male toilets with him. One of the females’ friends has reported that a conversation took place outside of the toilets with a security guard, who had turned to the male and said “Have a good one mate” as the male and female entered the toilets. They then entered a cubicle together. Once inside the cubicle, the male had raped the female customer. The female customer then texts her friends for help, who assisted in explaining to staff at the premises what had happened. Security staff located and detained the male. Initially, the victim did not want the police to be involved so the male was allowed to leave the premises. At around 5.00am, one of the victims’ friends reported the incident to GMP and a crime report for rape has been recorded and is being investigated.

 

GMP felt a number of things about the situation to be of concern. One is that a 14-year-old customer was able to gain entry to the premises. Then they were able to attempt to deal drugs. A female customer was allowed to enter the toilets with a male customer, alongside seeming approval from security staff. When staff were informed about the incident, they did not contact GMP and allowed the offender to leave the premises. This meant that the opportunity to apprehend a potentially dangerous offender was missed, possibly hindering any investigation. GMP requested that for these reasons, the Hearing Panel consider upholding the suspension of the licence until the full Summary Review is heard. At this point, GMP showed CCTV clips to provide context to the chain of events on the night in question.

 

In questioning, the Panel sought to establish further information regarding the door staff on the night, if there was an expectation that the male would be held on site, if there was an expectation that GMP would be informed of any serious incidents and clarity on the age of the male. GMP believed that the male working on the door is different from those shown in the CCTV clips. They believed there was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.