To consider an application for a review of a premise licence in respect of 9+9 Cantonese Takeaway (also known as Spice Minster), 102 Widemarsh Street, Hereford. HR4 9HG called by Police Sergeant 3456 Reynolds of West Mercia Police.

Members of the licensing sub-committee of the council’s planning and regulatory committee considered the above application, full details of which appeared before the Members in their agenda and the background papers.

Prior to making their decision the members heard from Emma Bowell, Licensing Technical Officer and Sergeant Duncan Reynolds and Jim Mooney, West Mercia Police.  

Following a query from the committee, the Licensing Technical Officer outlined the steps taken to contact the premises licence holder which included hand delivering papers to the premises.    However no contact had been received. The committee agreed to hear the review in the absence of the premises licence holder.  

West Mercia Police outlined their representation in connection with the review which included:

·                That whilst the premises were licenced for late night refreshment, the licence had been suspended since 2014 as the annual licensing fees had not been paid.

·                The police were involved in a Multi-Agency Targeted Enforcement (MATE) group which was comprised of a number of agencies including the fire service, UK Border and Immigration Service, HMRC and various departments within Herefordshire Council.  The purpose of the group was to ensure legal compliance and to target premises where there was intelligence to suggest that there was significant risk of harm to anyone who works or uses the premises.

·                A MATE operation had taken place at the premises on 7 April 2018.  The intelligence received was that there were potentially illegal immigrants employed at the premises.

·                As part of the visit on 7 April, one male had been arrested as they were found to be in the country illegally with no right to stay or work in the UK.  This male had also been detained as part of a similar enforcement visit on 27 October 2017.  

·                The manager of the premises had been issued with a civil enforcement penalty of £10,000 as a result of the enforcement visit in October 2017 by the UK Border and Immigration Agency.   A further civil enforcement penalty had been issued as a result of the April visit

·                The S182 guidance indicates that serious consideration be given to revocation as the employment of illegal immigrants is considered to be a serious matter.  

The committee have carefully considered all the representations, reports and evidence before them today and have also had regard to their duties under S4 of the Licensing Act and have considered S182 guidance and Herefordshire’s statement of licensing policy.  They also had regard to the relevant sections of the Licensing Act.   

DECISION

This is the decision of the licensing sub-committee in respect of a review of premises licence following the licence review of a premises licence concerning 9+9 Cantonese Takeaway (also known as Spice Minster), 102 Widemarsh Street, Hereford.

The decision of the committee is that the licence shall be revoked. 

REASONS

The reasons for the decision were that the premises had continued to operate despite the fact that the licence had been suspended since 2014 due to the non-payment of the annual licensing fee and further there had been 2 multi-agency enforcement visits within the last 12 months which had discovered an illegal worker at the premises. It was noted the the same illegal worker was detained at the premises on both the first and second enforcement visit. It is the case that Sections 11.27 and 11.28 of the April 2018 S182 statutory guidance state that the employment of illegal workers should be treated particularly seriously and it is expected that revocation of the licence – even in the first instance – should be seriously considered.

The premises were clearly operating in a way to undermine the prevention of crime and disorder licensing objective. On this basis, the committee considered that it was appropriate and proportionate to revoke the licence.