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

The Hearing Panel considered a report of the Head of Planning, Building Control and Licensing.  The Hearing Panel also considered the written papers of the parties submitted and the oral representations of the parties who attended as well as the relevant legislation.

Greater Manchester Police addressed the Hearing Panel, stating that this was an expedited/summary review under s53A of the Licensing Act 2003. The premises had been associated with Serious Crime and Serious Disorder and referred to pages 18, 19 and 20 of the published report. The report gave details on phone calls coming in to GMP regarding 4 males fighting and stamping on people’s heads. The premises themselves had made the second call received by GMP about the incident, mentioning the fight and adding that some people were bleeding. Further calls came in stating that a male had been knocked unconscious and that a suspect had left the scene. A female member of staff was also attacked. Prior to the fracas, there had been an incident in the toilets whereby damage had been done to the ceiling, walls and hand dryers. Two separate bookings had been in attendance that evening, one for a funeral and another for a birthday. There was a range of injuries sustained due to the incident – a broken ankle, a fractured cheek and two males with a bleed to the brain. Two crimes were submitted in response to the incident, namely Section 18 Wounding and Affray and further crimes were expected as a result of ongoing investigations. GMP offered their concerns over the incident and also the potential for customers and staff to be in danger if the premises was allowed to continue with their current licensing arrangements and noted the required conditions they were requesting, in the published report at page 19.

In response to questions from the premises appointed Barrister, GMP stated that:

• They agree, there is no regular problem with violence at the Winston Conservative Club and a suspension of the licence was not being sought
• This was the first of any such incident known to GMP at the premises
• The vandalism prior to the fracas was located in the male toilets
• The violence had occurred outside the club with a male being knocked unconscious found outside a take-away further down Hall Lane
• There was no reason to doubt this version of events
• GMP needed to be certain that no similar events could occur at the club
• CCTV was in place at the club but was not made available on the night of the incident as there was no member of staff on duty with the training to operate the system
• The CCTV footage was obtained at a later date and this is a problem as it can halt proceedings when GMP can hold suspects for 24 hours
• The CCTV was not made available on the second visit either
• Alcohol sales to underage drinker was not a perceived problem at the club but would be good to promote Challenge 25 and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73.

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

The Hearing Panel considered a report of the Head of Planning, Building Control and Licensing.  The Hearing Panel also considered the written papers of the parties submitted and the oral representations of the parties who attended as well as the relevant legislation.

Greater Manchester Police addressed the Hearing Panel, stating that this was an expedited/summary review under s53A of the Licensing Act 2003. The premises had been associated with serious crime and referred to information contained with the published report from pages 14 and 15, regarding Trading Standards and GMP making a joint visit to the premises after being alerted to knives and illegal vapes possibly being on sale. The officers then discovered a number of offensive weapons behind the counter and in the PLH/DPS’s vehicle as well as 5 bottles of medicine which was illegal without any prescription. The PLH/DPS behaved in an intimidating manner towards the GMP officer and invited them to take their vest off and go outside which the officer declined. The PLH/DPS was arrested and the following crimes submitted: 3 crimes for Possession of Offensive Weapons and Being Concerned in the Supply of Controlled Drugs – Class B – Cathinone Derivative. GMP requested that the licence be suspended pending the full review hearing.

Attendees for Zaf’s Go Local were the PLH/DPS Mr M Iqbal, his brother and business partner Mr S Iqbal and a friend Mr A Wahid. Mr Wahid asked GMP why no pictures of the weapons had been supplied in the report. GMP confirmed that there were photographs available for the Hearing Panel to see and that the incident was ongoing with GMP and weapons remained seized.

Mr Wahid mentioned that there was some debate with the description of some of the items as offensive weapons.

The Chair asked GMP if the medicine had the name of any person prescribed to take the substance printed on the bottles and GMP confirmed that there was no name on any of the bottles and that the PLH/DPS took full responsibility for them.

Mr Wahid, friend of the PLH/DPS and his brother/business partner addressed the Hearing Panel and stated that he was in attendance to support the brothers, adding that this was a family business, dedicated to the community with no prior blemish on record. They understood that this was a serious incident but needed some context and referred to Mr S Iqbal, the PLH’s brother, concerning his health. Mr S Iqbal had suffered a stroke earlier in 2024 and had to step down from helping at the premises which led to mistakes being made by a previous employee regarding the illegal vapes being sold. Furthermore, there had been an arson attack on the premises and the owners had little assistance from GMP over this. Weapons were kept out of fear rather than any malice due to this incident. Regarding the Class B drugs, these were for Mr S Iqbal’s personal use owing to his ongoing health issues. This was not kept on site for resale.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.