Police have no confidence in takeaway seeking 3am deliveries licence

A business owner has apologised for operating outside his approved business hours when applying for a licence to offer food deliveries until 3am.

Kamran Khan, 32, accepted that he had received warnings from Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove City Council after claims that his business, Express Pizza and Chicken, at 172 Portland Road, Hove, was trading after 1am.

A report to a council licensing panel of three councillors – John Hewitt, Paul Nann and Alison Thomson – included images from Google showing the business closing time as 1.50am when the licence was to 1am last August.

The Just Eat website was advertising deliveries until 4.30am.

This was the second time that Mr Khan had received a warning and in February 2022 the company’s website showed the business closing time as 3am at weekends and 2am in the week.

At the licensing panel hearing today (Monday 26 January), Mr Khan, an Afghan national, said that he felt his written English was not good enough to respond to the warnings from Sussex Police and the council’s licensing team.

The panel was told that the business currently operated with a late-night refreshment licence to sell hot food and drink after 11pm until 1am.

The application was originally to extend the licence to allow delivery of hot food and drink until 5am.

At the start of the hearing Mr Khan’s agent Graham Hopkins said that the proposed delivery hours would be restricted to 3am.

This would still be later than the 2am set out in council licensing policy.

Sussex Police licensing officer Hannah Staplehurst said that she had little confidence in the business.

The force had twice raised concerns in writing about the online opening hours and breaches of licensing conditions as well as during a number of visits to the premises.

Since 2019, during various visits, police found the closed-circuit television (CCTV) system was not working as required by the licence conditions.

Ms Staplehurst said that during one visit she had no co-operation from staff when asking for CCTV footage and had to call a police colleague for help.

The business was also found trading without complying with covid-19 restrictions in 2020.

Ms Staplehurst said: “Sussex Police have no working relationship or confidence in Mr Hopkins’s client and currently believe that, should the panel grant this application with any conditions that have been offered, that these conditions will be immediately breached and the premises will not operate in a responsible or safe fashion.”

Council licensing official Corinne Hardcastle said that she would have expected to hear something back from a business receiving a warning, either admitting or refuting such allegations, but heard nothing.

Mr Hopkins said that he had checked both Just Eat and Uber Eats to confirm the sites were now showing the correct hours for the business.

He also told the panel that all staff would receive training and were already able to work the CCTV system.

There is no dining in and Mr Hopkins said that customers would not be allowed in the shop after 1am to keep noise down and reduce potential anti-social behaviour.

The business has four employees, two of them delivery drivers.

Mr Hopkins said: “The hospitality trade has taken a bashing in the past few years and that does include takeaways and restaurants.

“They’ve been through covid, the energy crisis, which is still affecting their prices, increased price of goods, national minimum wage going up, (national insurance) contributions going up – so it’s not been an easy time.

“There’s nothing ulterior behind this application. It’s purely to maintain the viability of the business.”

The panel retired to make its decision which should be made public within five working days.