Police oppose licence for North London venue after 'illegal' wedding reception

The Metropolitan Police have strongly criticised a North London venue's licence application, describing the company as a 'complete mess' and casting doubt on the owners' ability to manage the venue legally.

Officers had been called to the premises after a fight broke out at an ‘illegal’ wedding reception, resulting in several injuries and one arrest.

Aarti Banqueting Limited submitted an application to Harrow Council to transfer the premises licence, currently under London Kadai Limited, for the banqueting hall in the EuroTraveller hotel on Northolt Road to them. However, the Met Police claimed that the ‘exceptional circumstances’ of the case would undermine the licensing objectives, particularly the prevention of crime and disorder.

On April 27 this year, officers declared a ‘critical incident’ at the venue after a large fight broke out just after midnight at a wedding reception, where at least 20 marked police cars were deployed and a dispersal order was issued to break up the fights. Officers claim that events are being held illegally and ‘under the radar’ as the venue should not be hosting any ‘licensable activities’.

During the incident, several people were injured and one was arrested, with the sergeant on the scene reporting that there was no authorised manager on site, whilst security staff had ‘covered their face’ with a balaclava and were ‘doing nothing to de-escalate the situation or help anyone’.

Representing the applicant, Noel Samaroo of NTAD Consultants, argued that the incident happened outside the premises, after it had closed. However, PC Siddhartha Bhandari disputed this. Addressing the council’s licensing panel at a recent meeting (Tuesday (16)), he said: “[…] that incident happened inside the venue.”

He added: “From the body cam video from the sergeant who went inside, we can clearly see the venue was not shut. There were people cleaning, there were security SIA’s, there were families inside. Everyone was scared. […] When he left, there were three people who were seriously injured, there was one arrest, [it] was declared as a critical incident.

“The worst thing is, last week they were still holding a party when we have told them multiple times that all licensable activities should cease. […] licensing officers […] found there was a big birthday party of 150 people being organised in the venue.”

Samaroo acknowledged that the situation is ‘a mess’. He emphasised that Aarti Banqueting ‘don’t want to operate illegally’ but claimed it has been difficult for the directors of the two companies involved to agree. He said: “It’s frustrating for everybody.”

Officers claimed that they had been trying to make contact with the company directors via phone and email but had not received a response. According to Samaroo, the complexity stems from the fact that Aarti Banqueting are responsible for taking care of the banquet hall, but London Kadai are the current licence holders. This has led to both police and council officers being left confused about who should have been providing them with the necessary information.

Samaroo said: “The two people were friends and they got on fine. They had a bit of a fall out, as people do in business from time to time, and, from what I can understand, they stopped speaking to each other and it became a bit of a mess.”

Chair of the committee, Susan Hall, suggested that if the people running the banqueting suite have fallen out, if the police are having to attend parties and no-one understands who the licence holder is, then there is a ‘massive problem’.

She said: “For me, it’s not just a case of transferring the licensing order, it’s a case of nuking the licence that is there at the moment and a separate application going in. […] It’s a complete mess and we are supposed to judge whether one of these warring couples is suitable to have a licence.”

Samaroo told the committee that they are ‘trying to sort out’ the mess but PC Bhandari queried how the police could trust that they are ‘willing to run the business in a legal, legitimate way’. Ultimately the licensing panel decided that it was ‘not prepared to transfer the licence’, a decision Samaroo said was ‘not one [he] didn’t expect’. (Local Democracy Reporting Service)