HENLEY’S lapdancing club is set to close after being stripped of its licence.

More than 100 crimes have been reported at Diamonds and Pearls since it opened two years ago.

On Monday, South Oxfordshire District Council’s licensing panel agreed to revoke the licence in response to an application by Thames Valley Police.

Latino’s nightclub, which is in the same building in Greys Road car park, could also close because it is governed by the same licence.

The owners have until next month to appeal during which time the clubs can remain open.


Andy Mags, owner of Diamonds and Pearls, Leno Borg, owner of Latino’s, and licence holder Antonio Lopes were present at the hearing along with businessman Manowar Hussain, who funded the venture before pulling out days before the club opened.

The panel was told that the police had found evidence of licence breaches, including:

* Drug taking on the premises.
* Prostitution.
* Assaults by members of staff on customers.
* Operating out of hours.

Police held meetings with the staff after the level of reported crime at the lapdancing club soared. Offences included 18 assaults, nine incidents involving drugs, 12 cases of fraud, six thefts, one affray and a rape.

Laura Morris, licensing officer for Thames Valley Police, said: “There have been 106 incidents at the premises since it opened and the force is concerned that just over 40 per cent of assaults have involved staff and the majority were after 2am.”

She told the three-strong panel that since the police successfully applied to have the White Lotus Sports Bar in Hart Street closed in September 2009, reports of crime at Diamonds and Pearls had soared.

“There has been an alarming number of reports of credit card fraud,” said Ms Morris. “Those who have reported it to the management have been refunded but it does beg the question what has happened to those who didn’t.”

She said the club had recently introduced a signed receipt policy, installed infra-red CCTV so customers can be seen on the dance floor and toughened drugs policy but it was “too little too late”.

Police carried out searches using sniffer dogs and found large amounts of cocaine and traces of heroin and methadone in toilets, changing rooms and in a DJ’s booth.

Ms Morris said: “There were several places throughout the club producing high readings of cocaine. This does concern me — readings in the disabled toilets were very high.

“In the last three years we have been involved in swabbing. The highest reading we have ever had was 5.76 [out of 10]. Anything over 3 I would be concerned about and there were quite a few readings of 4.5 and 4.7.”

Ms Morris said that adding more conditions to the licence was “not realistic”, adding: “Thames Valley Police feels the premises is the issue, not individuals, and the crime and disorder is not being managed.”

Juan Lopez, a London barrister representing the club, asked Henley police sergeant Graham Pink what sort of relationship the police had with staff at the club.

The officer replied: “There was a breakdown in communication between staff and officers in Henley that occurred last year. Since then we have been working very hard with the door staff. At the moment there is a very good working relationship and they are taking on board what officers are telling them.”

Mr Lopez said some of the drugs finds could be explained by “cross-contamination”.

He added: “This town and every other town will have an issue with drugs, it is how you deal with it.”

The management introduced the new drugs policy last weekend and dismissed dancers who were thought to be handing out “sexual favours”.

Mr Borg said: “With regards to the dancers, we dismissed everybody and rehired them except for two or three who we thought might not comply with the licence conditions. We dismissed a couple of girls we thought were soliciting, which is absolutely not allowed.”

He said the club had a safe where he kept confiscated drugs before handing them to the police during their weekly visits. Staff had been given training to search for drugs and recognise if a customer was under the influence.

Mr Borg added: “The problems really started when the other club shut down.”

Councillor Ann Midwinter, a member of the panel, asked what training staff had been given because their certificates were dated March 14 — after the police had applied for the licence to be reviewed.

Mr Borg replied that all the staff had been trained and went on refresher courses regularly.

Mr Lopez told the panel that revoking the licence would be “Draconian”.

He said: “The police want to revoke the licence and I do not understand that position at all. Mr Borg, who is in substance the primary face of management, is satisfactory and they do not want to see him removed from the premises, the head of ST [Security] is satisfactory and they provide a team that is a-okay and the police do not want to see them removed.

“When the police came knocking, we closed for six weeks so we could deal with it ourselves and get things done and dusted. What business in this climate does that voluntarily? That tells a great deal about the responsible attitude of this management.

“The club is not a trouble spot in itself — 106 incidents to the novice reader is alarming and a source of complaint but if one delves deeper, aggrieved customers who think they were charged too much or simply want to do damage to a sound business can make a complaint and it is logged but it may be completely bogus.

“The police standpoint seems confused. You have a good relationship with the management but it is the premises as a whole that is the problem, not the management.”

Ms Morris said the panel could consider restricting the club’s opening hours to 2am because most of the reported incidents happened after that time.

Mr Lopez said such a restriction would be a “gratuitous swipe” that wouldn’t be practicable.

“It would be knocking the premises on the head,” he said. “Deliver a final warning in the strongest possible terms — there is nothing weak about that.”

The panel took 90 minutes to decide to grant the police’s application.

Chairman Malcolm Leonard said the panel had “no alternative” but to revoke the licence.

He said: “There is strong evidence to show a large number of incidents is associated with the premises.”

After the hearing, Sgt Pink said: “We are pleased the panel supported our application and we will wait to see if appeal proceedings go ahead.”

Mr Borg said the club would appeal but refused to comment further.

The club has 21 days in which to lodge an appeal with magistrates.

Published 26/04/11