A notorious Batley bar has been shut down after a spate of violent incidents.
Police told a licensing panel at Huddersfield town hall that they had recorded several serious incidents at Le Choix Bar in Bradford Road over the last six months.
These included an assault on September 18 when three women reported being assaulted, one of whom had to be admitted to hospital with injuries to her back.
And on October 15 a 22-year-old man had to be taken by ambulance to hospital after he was struck on the back of the head. He was treated for “a fractured skull, a bleed on the brain and facial nerve damage".
Sgt Leon Stansfield told the hearing the bar should have its premise licence revoked “as I believe that this business has not been run as per the premise licence for some time now and continues to breach the conditions set on the licence on a number of occasions".
He added: “The owner of the building and previous premise licence-holder Mohammed Rashid ran the premises without a designated premises supervisor for over a year and fully admitted to not knowing what the opening times were or that they differed from the times alcohol sales were permitted.”
In support of the application by West Yorkshire Police, Anwar Butt of the licensing authority said: “It has been the experience of all concerned that the management of this premises has been questionable.
“This is demonstrated by a continued failure to operate within the requirements of the licensing act and to ensure that the licensing objectives are met.
“We would like to support the police request for revocation of this licence. Mr Rashid and his sister Shahista have been given every opportunity to comply with their requirements since October 2015.
“However, on each occasion they have shown themselves to have a lack of commitment to fulfilling these requirements and on each occasion they have laid the blame for this with either the council or West Yorkshire Police.”
But Mr Rashid said: “It’s a professionally run outfit. The bar supervisor has 40 years' experience. We have completed a £150,000 refurbishment this year.
“We have made mistakes before but it was not done maliciously. We have run it to a very high standard.”
After a hearing lasting nearly two hours, panel chairman Clr Cathy Scott said: “The decision is that we are going to revoke the licence.”
