A bar where police found traces of drugs – including heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine – has been told that it can stay open over Christmas and the new year.
The assurance was given to the owners as they wait to hear whether they will have to shut their business after Sussex Police urged council licensing chiefs to revoke their licence.
The force made the request to Brighton and Hove City Council after “three high drug swab readings” at the Gin Tub, in Church Road, Hove.
Chief Superintendent Nick May, the police divisional commander for Brighton and Hove, said in his written request: “Brighton licensing have conducted a stepped approach over 2019 which has seen no improvements in the levels of drug use at the premises.
“Following the third high reading we believe the licence needs to go to review for revocation.”
One of the owners, Steve Guille, told a council licensing panel today (Monday 9 December) that he was shocked to learn about the high levels of cocaine traces found at the bar.
But on one occasion, police said, the leftovers of a cocaine wrap were found in an upstairs toilet.
The swab tests were carried out, Chief Superintendent May said, after police received “intelligence … about drug use and drug dealing occurring at the premises”.
Mr Guille told the licensing panel, which sat at Hove Town Hall this morning (Monday 9 December), that he would not have expected the level of drug contamination found by police.
The bar’s clientele was, he said, mainly older, more affluent and predominantly female.
Yet one of the swabs detected methamphetamine – a party drug that some gay men use during sex.
And Labour councillor Jackie O’Quinn said: “Quite frankly, if you’ve been running bars for a length of time, you should know the clientele most likely to use cocaine is older people.
“We’ve had it before along this street. People in their thirties and forties take cocaine.”
Barrister Peter Savill, for Sussex Police, told the licensing panel that some surfaces at the Gin Tub had been in direct contact with a “bulk” quantity of drugs.
He said that Sussex Police wanted the bar’s licence revoked.
Conservative councillor Dee Simson asked PC Andre Bernascone, who carried out the swab tests, how effective cleaning was in removing traces of drugs.
