‘Under-age boozing’ pub, Cape of Good Hope, forced to close

Published: 08 July, 2010
by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS

A COUPLE who run a pub near Regent’s Park have had their licence suspended after complaints from police.

Noleen and Sam Hare, who have run the Cape of Good Hope in Albany Street for 15 years, told a Town Hall licensing panel review hearing on Monday they had left the day-to-day running of the pub to a manager since last year. 

Police said during that time they visited the premises several times and found underage drinkers, including one 15-year-old girl who needed hospital treatment. Officers also said their visits to the pub, which is next door to the Albany Street police station, revealed evidence of drug-taking and violent behaviour.

A new manager has been hired but licensing chiefs said the pub must close until he is ready to take the job next month.

New conditions were also placed on the licence, prompted by the police who had called for it to be revoked altogether. 

PC Gerry McGann said: “You’ve heard today evidence of drug misuse, underage drinking, assaults on council enforcement officers and after-hours lock-ins. What you’ve heard is a complete breakdown in management – it is woeful and lamentable.”

He said the council’s environmental health team had been verbally abused when they visited the pub last year. 

Punch Taverns, the brewery with overall responsibility for the pub, met with the police to discuss how it was operating.

Mrs Hare told the panel they were unaware of the problems and “apologised profusely”. Asking for a second chance to “get my good name back for my pub”, she added: “I live off the estate and nobody told me. I was not aware. My husband had two heart attacks and so I was distracted.”

Responding to calls from police to have the former manager barred permanently as a customer, she said: “He’d never acted like that before. He’s lost so much, I just feel he’s been punished enough.”

Panel chairwoman Councillor Pat Callaghan told her the breaches of the licence had been “very serious”.

Cllr Callaghan said under the new licence the couple would be ordered to invest in CCTV.

She added: “Nobody alerted you to the fact that really serious problems were going on. We do not feel that the applicant has displayed that they are dealing with [the licensing objectives,] protection of children from harm, public nuisance, and crime and disorder.”

Speaking afterwards, Ms Nolan said: “We’ll be back.”