Two Southsea bars under threat amid allegations of serving drinks outside licenced hours

According to council documents, both Chimney in Clarendon Road and The Sunday Post in Osborne Road opened past their allowed hours on multiple occasions and councillors are now being urged to take a ‘tough’ response.

Hakem Arabbetou, who owns both businesses, was interviewed under caution by a licensing officer in November and warned the ‘seriousness’ of the issues meant prosecution had started, alongside the licence reviews. Mr Arabbetou has been contacted for comment.

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Chimney, which had previously also been called The Sunday Post, has been run as a bar for several years, despite being warned as far back as February 2017 that it needed a new licence to do so. A solicitor acting for Mr Arabbetou was told in November 2018 that the change from an off licence to a bar had been done without approval.

The licence review has been called by the council’s licensing manager Nickii Humphreys who said Mr Arabbetou ‘has failed to uphold the prevention of crime and disorder and prevention of public nuisance licensing objectives’.

This also includes the sale of alcohol beyond the time allowed for the premises, ‘causing a public nuisance’ to people living nearby and the issuing of both noise abatement and planning contravention notices against it.

Under its licence, the Clarendon Road building can serve alcohol until 10.30pm Monday to Saturday and 10pm on Sundays but it was found to be open after this time in October.

‘The licensing authority has instigated this review due to concerns that, despite giving clear guidance and warnings as regards complying with the conditions of the premises licence, the licence holder has continued to operate in contravention of the authorisation for the sale of alcohol,’ Ms Humphreys’ review request says. ‘This clearly undermines the promotion of the licensing objectives referred to in this review.’

At the same time, a separate application was made for the Osborne Road bar due to repeated instances of alcohol being sold beyond its 10.15pm weekday and 10.45pm weekend hours.

The review application says it was open after 11pm on October 28 with non-licensed door staff and that despite this visit it was also open at midnight the following two days. A further breach was also recorded on November 19.

Police licensing officers also visited on November 13 and found the bar serving customers at 1.20am.

Ms Humphreys urged members of a licensing sub-committee due to meet on Monday (February 27) to consider the reviews to take ‘tough action’ against Mr Arabbetou.