Police apply for popular Milton Keynes venue's alcohol licence to be suspended after man was fatally stabbed

Police have applied tonight for the alcohol licence of a popular Milton Keynes city centre venue to be urgently suspended following the fatal stabbing of 28-year-old Nagiib Maxamed last week.

Mr Maxamed had been to a music event at the Atesh bar and restaurant on Boxing Day night to celebrate his 28th birthday. His injuries are alleged to have been sustained in the outside smoking area. He was rushed to hospital but sadly later died.

Today police have submitted an application to Milton Keynes Council Licensing Sub-Committee, calling for the alcohol licence of the Grafton Gate East premises to be removed while a full review takes place.

Currently the venue has a licence to serve alcohol until 4am from Monday to Sunday.

The application describes what happened when police arrived in the early hours of December 27.

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

It adds: "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 adds: "They initially did not want to close down the venue, but this was then done once more police arrived on scene."

It also alleges 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 states.

It also claims 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."

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 Mr Maxamed had been attending a 'bashment music' event on the bottom floor of Atesh, organised by local promotors called VibezMK. Vibez are not available for comment.