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

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 review application, believing that a serious crime had taken place at the premises. GMP stated that during the early hours of Wednesday 29^th June 2022, a 15-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 15-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 a suspension of the licence until the full Summary Review is heard.

In questioning, the Panel sought to establish how the 15-year-old male had gained entry and if there was any further information in what appeared compliance from security staff in allowing drug use/dealing to occur. GMP stated that the 15-year-old male, from a photo they had seen, did not look 25. However, GMP noted that they had used a fake ID that said the customer was 19 but had their picture and name on. The premises uses an ID scanner to detect fake ID’s and thus it is being looked into how this failed on this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.