Milton Keynes bar and restaurant BANNED from selling alcohol after fatal stabbing incident

Police successfully applied for its licence to be suspended while a full review takes place
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The Atesh bar and restaurant in Milton Keynes has had its alcohol licence suspended following the death of a young man during a Boxing Day music event.

Police applied yesterday (Tuesday) for MK Council to take action. They asked licensing committee councillors to impose an immediate suspension pending a full review of the premises.

The licence also allows Atesh to sell food after 7pm, so now they cannot do this. No alcohol can be served at any time until the review is completed.

Atesh bar and restaurantAtesh bar and restaurant
Atesh bar and restaurant

The move comes after the fatal stabbing of 28-year-old Nagiib Maxamed in the smoking area of the venue. Another man received injuries in the same incident, but survived.

Mr Maxamed had been to a 'Bashment' music night at Atesh to celebrate his birthday. The venue regular hires out its spaces for promoters to run events up until 4.30am, and each attracts hundreds of people.

Police launched a murder investigation and have arrested a man and woman from Birmingham on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Their application to the council contained a number of shocking revelations about how security people, staff and managers at Atex reacted when police arrived at the scene in the early hours of December 27.

Atesh restaurant areaAtesh restaurant area
Atesh restaurant area

It stated: "The staff did not call the police and were incredibly evasive, obstructive and ruse when police attended."

And it added: "Upon arrival, three to four security were stood inside the main doors talking. They met police outside and said they knew an incident occurred and had potentially seen that someone had been stabbed - but did not call the police.

"When they were confronted about not calling the police, they said they thought someone else had called the police - despite there being 10 security and other staff members on scene."

"The application said Atesh initially did not want to close down the venue, but this was then done once more police arrived on scene."

It alleged that staff did not even call an ambulance.

"On speaking with officers, door staff confirmed that there had been an altercation in the smoking area. They had seen a group leave the premises including a male who was injured and had blood on him. He sat on the ground by the door and then someone he was with took him by car away from the premises. Staff did not call emergency services," the application stated.

It also claimed the venue's managers were "evasive" about providing CCTV and were "reluctant" to produce it at first. One of them became "argumentative" with police, the police application claims. And it describes how the security staff were not wearing body cameras or high vis jackets.

"Of the 10 door staff on duty, several of them were not displaying their SIA licence badges in a visible manner and two of them did not have their SIA licence badges on their person, (requirements of their SIA licence). Door staff were also not wearing body worn cameras (or) wearing high visibility vests outside, or clearly identifiable as door supervisors inside the premises. This is a breach of condition 2.6 of the premises licence."

The application was submitted by Superintendent Marc Tarbit.

It states: "Due to severity of the offence and the premises licence holder’s lack of initial support of the investigation, I consider this incident to be sufficiently serious enough to review the premises licence. I believe interim steps in relation to the licence are also required, therefore a Summary Review under the Licensing Act 2003 is the most appropriate course of action"

And it concludes: "Mr Ates is the sole premises licence holder and the designated premises supervisor. It is his responsibility to ensure licence conditions are complied with and that licensing objectives are promoted. The premises staff were ill prepared for the incident that occurred and any protocols in place for a violent incident were either not adhered to or unsuitable.

"Due to the serious nature of the incident and subsequent actions of the premises licence holder and his staff, it is our opinion that the most appropriate course of action would be to suspend the premises licence pending final review hearing. I intend to gather more information from the premises during the consultation period between hearing before submitting our final recommendation in relation to the licence."

The review must be completed within 28 days, during which time councillors will have to decide whether to revoke the licence permanently.

After the incident on December 27, Atesh put out a statement reading: "We apologise to all our customers that we have had to close our restaurant temporarily as police continue their investigation on an altercation.

It added: "This was not during an Atesh event but an outside promoters event. As we understand an altercation occurred outside our venue between the smoking area and car park.

"We took all the measures to stop incidents such as these to happen within our venue unfortunately we cannot control what happens outside our venue.

"We are working very closely with the police in helping them conclude their investigation as swiftly as possible, all our CCTV is currently with the police and we hope this will help them."

It is understood the music' event was on the bottom floor of Atesh and organised by local promoters called VibezMK. Vibez are not available for comment.