Council bungles sex market licence

Newcastle City Council is facing strong pressure to take away the licence given for a sex market in the city’s Telewest Arena.

The Newcastle-based Christian Institute has exposed a catalogue of errors in the granting of a Sex Establishment Licence to Style Image Ltd. The Institute is calling for the immediate withdrawal of the licence.

In a letter to the Council, The Institute reveals that:

1. Newcastle Council have awarded the licence to a non-existent Company. The application was advertised in the local press in the name of ?Style Image Ltd?. According to a search of the Companies House database ?Styleimage Ltd? changed its name to Xsensual Ltd on 20 October 1999.
2. According to the search, Jack Frere, the media face of the company which seeks to operate the Xsensual 2000 event, is not a director of Xsensual Ltd, contrary to a statement the application form submitted to the Council.
3. The sex licence applicants claimed they currently hold a sex shop licence for the Wembley Exhibition Centre. Brent Council, which is the responsible authority, has told The Christian Institute it has never issued such a licence to Xsensual Ltd or Style Image Ltd. Brent say Wembley Exhibition Centre itself has the licence.
4. No details of Xsensual Ltd?s shareholders were provided on the licence application. Key sections of the form are therefore incomplete, and no checks have been carried out on the people behind the company.

Deputy Director of The Christian Institute, Simon Calvert, said today:

“It appears that the Council have issued a licence to a company which does not legally exist. A simple company search has revealed serious discrepancies. We believe the licence is therefore void or should be revoked.

It seems that the Council has been so anxious to rubber stamp the sex shop licence that they have not even bothered to perform basic checks on the applicant.

I am fascinated to know why Mr Frere omitted important details on his application form and why the form does not square up with a companies search.”