Bognor Regis takeaway stripped of licence after pills allegedly found in kebab

Istanbul Grill in High Street has been closed since the incident on Sunday December 29 where three women reported the discovery to police after purchasing food there.

Sussex Police is investigating and has since called for the takeaway’s premises licence to be revoked.

Members of an Arun District Council’s licensing sub-committee voted to strip Istanbul Grill of its licence yesterday (Tuesday February 24).

Owner Afshin Ali-Zadeh apologised for a number of mistakes made relating to his licence, but could not explain how or why the pills might have ended up in food served to customers.

Through a translator he described the allegations as ‘baseless’, asking: “Why would I damage my own business and put pills in my customers’ food?”

Barrister Peter Savill, representing Sussex Police, described how a package of pills ‘identical to those found in the kebab’ were discovered in the shop’s storage area during a search of the premises.

He explained that the pills found in the shop were a branded name of Viagra.

Mr Ali-Zadeh’s translator said: “He had the pills for his own use when he felt unwell.”

He also claimed the pills in the packet found in his shop and those discovered in the kebab were different.

He said: “This has affected my reputation and devastated my life. The allegation is baseless. Something happened in my shop but I was not involved.”

David Bateup, a licensing officer at Sussex Police, explained that the pills found in the kebab had been sent off to be forensically examined and they were still waiting for results to come back.

When Mr Ali-Zadeh took over the business in the spring he did not realise the existing licence would not carry over from the previous owner and he would need to obtain a new one in his name from Arun.

He also admitted to not fully reading his premises licence when it did arrive and therefore did not hire the required door staff for Friday and Saturday evenings.

He also did not check the existing CCTV system was working and only installed a new one just before the incident in December.

Members were also told about the difficulty Sussex Police experienced in attempting to obtain the passwords in order to access CCTV footage.

However the committee was shown a CCTV video clip from the night in question.

Mr Bateup said: “It’s very, very rare to have a situation where a premises licence holder is so totally incompetent they can’t access their own CCTV system.”

In response, Mr Ali-Zadeh said: “I was trying to cooperate and be honest. I did not hide anything.”

Although he has worked in the industry for a decade, this is his first time running a business on his own. He described how his English was not good enough to understand the licence document fully and was eventually translated with the help of a friend.

In presenting Sussex Police’s case for the licence to be revoked, Mr Savill highlighted both the ‘serious criminal matter subject to investigation’ and a ‘wholesale failure to comply with the conditions on the licence’.

He argued the premises licence holder had not only shown a ‘slipshod attitude’ to the licence itself, but had also demonstrated ‘rude and aggressive behaviour’ to the licensing authorities.

Mr Savill said: “We have the perfect storm of poor management, complete failure to comply with the licensing conditions, complete failure to comply with the responsible authorities and then we have the making of the closure notice and closure order effectively shutting this premises because of the risk it poses.