Business News Legal Live Business Top Stories

Fabric saved from closure after police prompt licence review over drug deaths

By | Published on Friday 19 December 2014

fabric

London nightclub Fabric has been saved from closure, following a licence review by Islington Council last night. The review was prompted by police, due to what was described as a “wholly unacceptable number of deaths and near death incidents at the venue”.

In a report, police noted that in the last three years, eight people had collapsed in the club due to ecstasy use, four of whom died. The review was seemingly prompted by the two most recent deaths, which happened in the last few months – particularly that of an eighteen year old girl whose death in September, police said, the club did not inform them about.

Although Fabric was told that revoking its licence was being “seriously considered”, the club was saved from closure at last night’s meeting of decision makers at Islington Council after venue bosses agreed to tighter checks, including hiring seven sniffer dogs and their handlers to patrol the venue at a cost of £300 each per four hour shift.

All clubbers will be subject to ID checks on entry too, and the club agreed to increase CCTV coverage of the venue and to step up drug searches at the door.

Despite the stern tone of the original police report that prompted the licence review, the Evening Standard reports that Chief Inspector Ian Howells said last night: “The relationship between the club and police has been good. There’s a good level of support. With the two recent deaths we have sought to engage to improve the security and search regime to mitigate further risks”.

The club’s co-founders Cameron Leslie and Keith Reilly told the Standard that the company will appeal last night’s decision over concerns about the implementation of the forced changes, including the introduction of an ID scanner. “We’ll be appealing. We need to see their written reasons but we fundamentally disagree on a number of key points”, said Leslie. “We are on the same page in lots of ways, we just have fundamental differences on how to operate that”.

Reilly added that the recent deaths were a result of a wider national problem, saying: “In fifteen years we have had six million people come through the doors and sadly there have been four deaths. We do everything we can to stop people taking drugs in the club. What’s happened recently is this country is awash with drugs. There’s been a large batch of MDMA that’s got more powerful and has caught the kids out”.

Prior to the meeting last night, Fabric put out a statement thanking people for the wave of support it received after news of the licence review broke. Talking up the various campaigns on drugs use, safer travel and harassment awareness run by the club, the statement added: “We care deeply about the welfare of our patrons. Fabric has always operated a zero tolerance drugs policy and we’re proud to continue to be open and honest in assisting the police with any incident investigations”.

It added: “We employ two trained medics who are on site for the duration of all of our club events and, as a venue, we provide free water and non-judgmental advice from bar staff, stewards and security teams. The incidents referred to in the Met Police’s report are truly tragic events; incidents that we assure you our team reacted to in the quickest possible and most efficient manner – our medical staff have since been commended by senior coroners on their ‘impressive’ and ‘quite extraordinary’ level of expertise”.

As a result of last night’s decision, all scheduled events over the festive season will continue as planned.



READ MORE ABOUT: