Liverpool Council<\/a>\u2019s licensing and gambling sub-committee said it was \u201cabundantly clear\u201d the management of Sotto on Wood Street meant it was no longer fit to hold a premises licence after multiple breaches of its conditions.<\/p>\nA lengthy hearing at Liverpool Town Hall heard how over a period of months, multiple people under the age of 18 were able to access the venue unchallenged and purchase alcohol, with the venue likened to an \u201cunsupervised youth club.\u201d On one occasion, a 16-year-old girl was seen being carried out of the city centre premises unconscious, having taken an unknown drug.<\/p>\n
One licensing officer told councillors how in almost two decades in the role, they had \u201cnever come across a premises as bad\u201d as Sotto. The business, which is now closed, had a licence held by Stephen Charlesworth who operates a number of venues across the city.<\/p>\n
Mr Charlesworth was invited to attend the meeting by council officials but told them via email he had \u201cdone one to Madrid\u201d and would not be appearing. Jenny Coyle, from Liverpool Council\u2019s licensing team, described him as having a \u201cnonchalant attitude\u201d towards the operation of his business and preventing underage drinkers from entering.<\/p>\n
Sergeant Craig Carmichael, from Merseyside Police, told the three-person panel how an initial licence was granted for Sotto in April 2024. It first became known to the force in October of that year.<\/p>\n
![\"Sotto](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1744894930_896_0_Sotto-on-Wood-Street-Liverpool.jpg\")
Sotto on Wood Street, Liverpool.(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n
Sgt Carmichael said Mr Charlesworth was spoken to about a number of people outside the premises drinking and a bench cited near the front door, in breach of the licence conditions. On October 18, an allegation was made of an assault in the bar involving a 17-year-old female who had accessed the premises.<\/p>\n
A week later, police spoke to Mr Charlesworth again regarding CCTV at the premises, which he claimed could only be accessed via another venue, again in breach of his licence. In November, he was warned a test purchase would be undertaken and warned that he may face prosecution if breaches continued.<\/p>\n
The hearing heard that the licence holder claimed he made no profit from the operation of Sotto and relied on other sites he ran to make money. In December, intelligence was received from Merseyside Police\u2019s missing persons unit that a young person under 18 they were seeking to locate was accessing the premises.<\/p>\n
Sgt Carmichael told the committee how a number of underage drinkers would attend Sotto and on December 4 last year, a 16 and 17-year-old were seen inside. When officers visited after Christmas, no identifiable door staff were on duty as people left the venue carrying drinks.<\/p>\n
Mr Charlesworth was said to be on duty behind the bar and claimed drinks had stopped being served after midnight, therefore he had not committed any breaches. He began arguing with police claiming they were \u201ctrying to kill hospitality in the city centre”, the meeting heard.<\/p>\n
At 1.40am on December 27, 2024, a group of teenage girls flagged down police officers who were near Sotto. They were carrying out a 16-year-old girl who was drunk and unconscious, having taken an unspecified drug. She was later taken to hospital.<\/p>\n
Sgt Carmichael also revealed how in January of this year, a registered sex offender was employed in a publicity position for Sotto and subsequently arrested.<\/p>\n
The police officer told the committee that despite numerous meetings with officials, Mr Charlesworth \u201ccould not grasp the fact\u201d he had breached licence conditions. He said the proprietor had a \u201ctotal disregard\u201d for the rules and put profits first.<\/p>\n
Sgt Carmichael said the force was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d at how the premises operated, describing it as \u201can unsupervised youth club with alcohol freely available.\u201d This was causing harm to minors, according to the officer.<\/p>\n
Cllr Christine Banks, committee chair, said: \u201cHe just didn\u2019t care, he blanked you, he blanked the policy.\u201d She added how she and long-serving panel colleagues had \u201cnever come across anything like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenny Coyle, from the council\u2019s licensing team, undertook a test purchase with police and a 16-year-old volunteer in February this year. She said prior to the test, she entered the building and saw \u201csomething not right with the age profile of people drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sotto](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1744894931_191_0_Sotto-on-Wood-Street-Liverpool.jpg\")
Sotto on Wood Street, Liverpool.(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n
Ms Coyle said around 70% of those inside were underage. She described this as \u201cextremely worrying\u201d and likened it to a \u201cschool disco gone wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The licensing officer said young people were seen to be \u201cextremely intoxicated\u201d with some passed out or asleep in the venue. The 16-year-old volunteer was sold two bottles of beer by Mr Charlesworth without being challenged for ID.<\/p>\n
Ms Coyle said staff raised concerns with the proprietor about this but were allegedly told to keep serving and not challenge for ID. After the test, Mr Charlesworth told officers how he hadn\u2019t committed a licence breach because he thought the volunteer was over 21.<\/p>\n
A week later, he told police he was \u201cdoing one to Madrid.\u201d In revoking the licence, Cllr Banks said it was \u201cabundantly clear\u201d the mismanagement of the premises was down to Mr Charlesworth who showed a \u201ccomplete disregard\u201d for licensing policy.<\/p>\n
She added how members were \u201cin no doubt the appropriate step to take\u201d was to strip the licence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police and Liverpool council officials said the bar was like an ‘unsupervised youth club’Sotto on Wood Street, Liverpool.(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,2349,14487,274,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-27577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-liverpool-city-centre","13":"tag-liverpool-council","14":"tag-merseyside-police","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114353441815728239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sotto](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_Sotto-on-Wood-Street-Liverpool.jpg\")
Sotto on Wood Street, Liverpool.(Image: Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n