Police demand York restaurant and bar is stripped of its licence after ‘underage drinking’

A hearing will be held next week where a York restaurant could be stripped of its licence after ‘failing to safeguard customers’.

Police are asking City of York Council to revoke the premises licence of the Sky Blue restaurant on Barbican Road.

Under its previous name, the Regency, it lost its licence after it was discovered that illegal workers were being paid as little as £2 an hour there.

It reopened under the new name as a restaurant and karaoke bar and with a new licence holder, Kheng Chooi Koay.

But since then, the police say they have uncovered numerous breaches of the licence, and that the Chinese restaurant was still being operated by members of the”problem management” of the Regency.

As YorkMix has reported previously, the police could press separate charges after a 16-year-old was said to have been served alcohol and then allegedly had her drink spiked at Sky Blue.

In her application to the council licensing committee hearing, delayed from September, PS Jackie Booth, police licensing manager, says the restaurant was unable to provide CCTV footage for the night of the alleged spiking.

She writes: “The crime prevention objective is about the avoidance of harm, and by operating in contravention of the premise licence conditions and in contravention of the law, supplying alcohol to a 16-year-old female, an offence under Section 146 of the Licensing Act 2003, Mr Koay, has failed to safeguard customers in attendance at his premises.”

She adds: “North Yorkshire Police provide evidence to the sub-committee who are entitled to take robust, appropriate, and proportionate steps to prevent this operator from further undermining the licensing objectives, and the police would respectfully ask members to revoke the premise licence for Sky Blue 16 Barbican Road.”

The licensing hearing will take place next Thursday, 17 November,