Victory for the Dice Bar in the face of 404 pages of evidence from the Police

The hearing of a police application for a Review of Dice Bar in Croydon’s Premises Licence, resulted in no action being taken, that’s despite 404 pages of what was discribed as ‘compelling’ police evidence.

Sgt Michael Emery, Croydon Borough’s licensing officer and author of the evidence report, had claimed that problems associated with Dice Bar were symptomatic of “very high levels of drunkenness”. He claimed that the club had become a “burden on police resources” and that incidents linked to the club had increased from 19 in 2013 to 88 in 2015. However, analysis of the evidence raised questions and in particular, evidence used to support the use of a closure notice.

Dice Bar owner, Roy Seda, said police had: “thrown everything at him”. In his official statement to the Licensing Committee, Seda said: “The papers from the police show 27 arrests, which calculates to 0.045% of our customers that were arrested. Not one incident is of a very serious nature.”

Poppleston Allen licensing solicitor, Steve Burnett, who worked with Sarah Clover of Kings Chambers, agreed that there were occasions where intervention had taken place. However, and much to the credit of the operator, their security staff acted swiftly and professionally.

Commenting, Steve Burnett said: “Dice Bar has shown themselves to be a professionally run family business and one that is deeply concerned with operating in accordance with the licensing objectives. When you consider the actions of the management and security staff on the occasions referenced by the Croydon Police, there really in nothing more they could have done. I am delighted with the decision of the Licensing Committee”.