Revoking Newbury club's licence 'only credible solution'

Police recommendation following catalogue of incidents

POLICE have “wholeheartedly” recommended revoking a Newbury nightclub boss’ licence following a catalogue of crime, including violence and drug-dealing.

Thames Valley Police claims that Andy Anderson, who ran The Vault in the Kennet Shopping centre, never even tried to comply with his licence conditions and actively covered up crimes.

At a meeting of West Berkshire Council licensing sub-comittee, held at the council offices in Market Street, Newbury, on Tuesday, Pc Simon Wheeler said revoking his licence was “the only credible solution”.

A huge dossier placed before committee members revealed:

• Assaults went unreported
• Children had Class A drugs at an under 18s night
• A member of door staff punched a female customer
• Large amounts of drugs were supplied and taken

A police report stated: “Over the weekend in general police found The Vault staff to be cocky and overly-aggressive, potentially creating more problems... they were seen to be swearing and smoking; generally they seemed unprofessional.”

In one of the most serious incidents a female, who had already been drinking when she arrived, was served vodka and other spirits at The Vault until she was unable to stand.

She was then ejected from the club and lay down nearby, before reportedly being abducted and raped.

The hearing was told Mr Anderson – who did not attend the committee meeting – also failed to show up at meetings with police and that calls and letters went unanswered.

At other times, incidents went unreported because Mr Anderson did not want to engage with police officers.

The CCTV system was so unreliable that otherwise viable prosecutions were dropped, the meeting was told.

Pc Wheeler said: “My subjective opinion is that, if you have someone not wanting police there, it suggests... they are trying to hide incidents that are occurring or cover up what’s taking place. They want to keep us away and stop us knowing what’s going on.

“The CCTV has still not improved. There were crimes that we weren’t able to prosecute because of that, so victims were being let down.”

Regarding the reported rape, Pc Wheeler said: “They served her a lot of alcohol. Insufficient checks were made on the door to ensure she wasn’t intoxicated in the first place.

“There were insufficient measures in place to ensure the safety of that female and this potentially led to what happened.”

Boxing matches were scheduled without informing police as required; an under-18s event – at which Class A drugs were found – was held in contravention of licence conditions and, likewise, a ‘RaverTots’ event was scheduled for a few weeks ago before being cancelled.

Pc Wheeler said Mr Anderson had shown he was not prepared to try to comply with the licensing conditions.

The committee will publish its decision at a later date.