Councillors revoke Hastings restaurant’s licence over ‘repeated management failures’

On Wednesday (September 9), a Hastings Borough Council licensing committee revoked the premises licence of Grand Pera, a Turkish restaurant in Harold Place.

After a separate hearing, the committee also removed Grand Pera’s owner Mustafa Ergun, 35, from his role as the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) of Shish, another Turkish restaurant in Robertson Street.

The review for Grand Pera had been brought by the council’s licensing team, as result of what officers described as a “failure of the operator to promote the licensing objectives due to ongoing issues with multiple breaches of conditions.”

Some concerns were in connection with a major incident at the premises in December, which resulted in several people being taken to hospital.

Describing this incident, Environmental Health officer Sharon White said: “Residents from the Queens Apartments were subjected to what, at the time, was considered to be potential carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator that was operational within an internal corridor within the Grand Pera Mediterranean Kitchen and Lounge.

“Off that incident seven people had to go to hospital and at least one person stayed in hospital overnight due to the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.”

The committee also heard how, in July, Mr Ergun had accepted two police cautions for offences linked to licensing breaches at both Grand Pera and Shish.

For Grand Pera, the breaches related to record-keeping and the serving of alcohol in an outdoor seating area. Officers said Mr Ergun had been warned not to do this as it was not authorised by the licence.

For Shish, they related to the unauthorised off-sales of alcohol. These sales were made to a police officer in plain clothes, councillors heard.

Mr Ergun said he had improved his management processes since then.

He said: “I am not here to say that no mistakes were made, mistakes were made. I accept responsibility for the licensing breaches that I admitted during my police interview and sincerely I apologise for those failures.

“However, I respectfully ask the committee to not only consider what went wrong in the past, but also what I have learned, what has changed and what systems are now in place.”

Stewart Bryant, the council’s lead licensing practitioner, argued the damage had already been done.

Mr Bryant said: “What we’ve heard here is a systemic failure to comply with those conditions. There has been negligence, there’s been avoidance and what we have now effectively is closing the door after the horse has bolted.”

After retiring to consider their decision in private, the committee confirmed they had decided to revoke the premises licence.

The panel’s chairman Amanda Jobson said: “The committee considered whether additional conditions [including] removal of the DPS or a period of suspension would adequately address the concerns.

“It concluded that the issues demonstrated wider and repeated management failures and that those lesser measures would not be sufficient.”

In a separate hearing, the committee had also considered a review application for Shish.

Mr Ergun had previously been a director of Happy Healthy Life Ltd, the company which owns the restaurant’s licence. But Companies House shows he ceased to have any control over this company in May this year.

After consideration of application, the committee opted to remove Mr Ergun from his role as the restaurant’s DPS.

They also amended the restaurant’s premises licence, removing its ability to sell hot food after 11pm.

The licence holders have a right to appeal the committee’s decisions through the Magistrates Court system.

A statement on Grand Pera’s Facebook page said it would appeal against the decision to revoke its licence and was open as usual.