ALLEGATIONS that under-age strippers were working at a Huddersfield lap dancing club were made as far back as 2007, it emerged last night.
Now La Salsa, which is also at the centre of claims about seedy sex deals, could be shut for good.
Police ordered the club, on Beast Market in Huddersfield town centre, to close in the early hours of Saturday morning after an undercover investigation into claims customers were being offered sex for cash.
Under UK law, private dancers in clubs must remain partially clothed at all times and are banned from physical contact with customers.
Plain-clothed special constables posing as punters reported being told sexual favours were on offer by dancers at the club on Friday night.
Uniformed officers and Kirklees Council licensing officials then raided the venue and allegedly discovered a 16-year-old Romanian stripper working there. Lap dancers have to be over 18.
The bar owner, who also runs La Salsa in Halifax, was subsequently arrested on suspicion of child welfare offences and people trafficking.
Concerns about the 35-year-old Iranian man’s legal status in the UK have also led to an immigration investigation. He has since been released on bail.
Now the council’s licensing panel has agreed to police requests to suspend all licensable activities – including alcohol sales and lap dancing – at the club until an urgent review of the situation can take place.
Pc Richard Woodhead, a licensing enforcement officer, revealed there had been allegations of under-age dancers being employed at the club for three years. And he said the police would ultimately be calling for the bar’s licence to be scrapped completely.
He said: “We feel that, with the breaches they have had, and the previous allegations about under-age dancers back in 2007, revocation of the licence is the best way forward to ensure no more exploitation of vulnerable individuals.”
Notices have been put up on the club to say that an expedited review of the licence will be held within 28 days because of concerns about serious crime and disorder.
A spokesman for La Salsa insisted the dancers had to sign an agreement to abide by the rules and any who broke the contract were sacked.
“We try to explain what they should and shouldn’t be doing and make it clear to customers what they shouldn’t do as well,” he said.
“If any of these people have done something without our knowledge, we can’t be responsible for that. We have done our best to warn both sides.”
He claimed the under-age girl had just started working for the club and she insisted she had papers proving she was over 18.
