Cafe Society Club In Brentford Has Licence Revoked

Following an incident involving a firearm last month

Café Society – a club in Brentford - has had its licence revoked following an incident involving a firearm, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning (11 October).

Police applied for a Summary Review of the Premises Licence and an emergency Licensing Panel was held at the Civic Centre on 14 October 2015.

The council’s Licensing Panel passed the decision to suspend the licence as an interim step before a full review was heard on 11 November 2015.

During the day Café Society is a busy coffee shop and restaurant used by office workers and shoppers on an industrial estate. By night it becomes a private ticketed event nightclub which hosts bashment parties.

The licence revocation means the premises cannot be used as a nightclub but it has no impact on the café continuing to run as a popular local business during the day. Café Society is situated on West Cross Way next to Sky’s offices, Subway and PC World.
Café Society’s licence has been reviewed before - in March 2013 - where stricter licence conditions were enforced upon the premises.

The Licensing Panel was shown CCTV footage of the incident and recordings of two 999 calls. In one, the manager of the venue can be heard telling his doorman to put the phone down after he put in the 999 call to report the incident. The manager insisted at the licensing meeting that he did not know that his doorman was on the phone to the police at the time.

Both the owner and manager were present at Café Society when the firearms incident took place. Five rounds of spent ammunition were recovered from a car park used by Café Parkside customers; on 11 October by the police and the council’s Licensing Enforcement Officers. The incident is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Trident unit.

Councillor Richard Foote, Cabinet Member for Community Protection, Hounslow Council, said: “Gun crime cannot be tolerated and when incidents of this kind occur we have to do everything within our powers put a stop to it."

The owner of Café Society now has 21 days to appeal the council’s decision to the Magistrates Court.

November 18, 2015