{"id":28797,"date":"2025-04-17T23:50:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T23:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/28797\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T23:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T23:50:16","slug":"west-bromwich-pub-handed-licence-back-after-man-kicked-unconscious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/28797\/","title":{"rendered":"West Bromwich pub handed licence back after man kicked unconscious"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Old Crown, now called Paradise Bar, in Sandwell Road, West Bromwich, had been closed since March following calls for an urgent review by West Midlands Police after a man was knocked unconscious during a fight outside the venue.<\/p>\n

\"ParadiseParadise Bar, Sandwell Road, West Bromwich. Pic: Google Maps. Permission for reuse for all LDRS partners.<\/p>\n

The force said it is still investigating an offence of grievous bodily harm (GBH) over the fight.<\/p>\n

Sandwell Council\u2019<\/a>s licensing subcommittee agreed to hand back the pub\u2019s landlord Orville Hines his licence following a hearing on April 9.<\/p>\n

Mr Hines told the hearing how he had only leased the venue to Paradise Bar and he did not have any input into the \u201cday-to-day conduct\u201d of the business according to his legal representative Heath Thomas.<\/p>\n

Mr Thomas blamed the trouble on the venue\u2019s designated supervisor, Maurice Delroy McLeod, and Paradise Bar director Pansy Guy, for \u201cpoor management decisions\u201d and said the licence had been \u201crecklessly or deliberately not followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A licence condition would ban those associated with Paradise Bar from the venue\u2019s licence.<\/p>\n

Mr Hines told the hearing he would always investigate incidents at his venues but \u201conly if he was made aware\u201d but as the landlord he was not responsible for the behaviour and action of his tenants.<\/p>\n

Following discussions prior to the meeting, West Midlands Police said the venue re-opening with conditions added to its licence was the \u201csensible way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

A report, which was discussed by\u00a0Sandwell Council<\/a>\u2019s licensing committee, said the fight broke out at around 2.55am on March 1 \u2013 nearly 90 minutes after the pub should have closed.<\/p>\n

The pub\u2019s licence means it can sell alcohol until 1am on Friday nights and must close by 1.30am.<\/p>\n

Police said CCTV footage from 15 minutes earlier showed the pub \u2018fully illuminated\u2019 and people standing outside with a \u2018small\u2019 number of people leaving.<\/p>\n

The footage then captured the fight at around 2.55am where \u2018crowds\u2019 of people are then seen leaving, according to the police\u2019s application for review.<\/p>\n

The licensing hearing on April 9 heard how police were alerted by concerned paramedics over mounting crowds outside the venue as they helped the unconscious man but officers were unable to attend as it was a \u2018peak time.\u2019<\/p>\n

The hearing also heard how further incidents had taken place in October and December last year \u2013 including one where three people were left with facial injuries but were not willing to file a report with police.<\/p>\n

As a result of the \u201cserious\u201d incident, the force said it had \u201cno confidence\u201d the conditions of the licence were being upheld and \u201cserious concerns\u201d about the pub remaining open.<\/p>\n

Sandwell\u2019s public health officers agreed, saying the \u201cdisorder and violence associated with the venue pose a clear risk to public safety and well-being, necessitating urgent action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The violent incident also raised \u201csignificant concerns regarding the management and operation of the venue,\u201d public health added.<\/p>\n

An urgent review was held behind closed doors on March 14 where the pub\u2019s licence was suspended until the full hearing on April 9. The pub\u2019s designated supervisor Maurice Delroy McLeod was also removed from the licence.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time Mr Hines has had to face councillors over violence at his string of pubs and venues.<\/p>\n

The Earl of Dudley Arms in Wellington Road, Dudley, closed in late 2015 and was branded \u2018one of the most dangerous in the West Midlands\u2019 by one high-ranking police officer because of violent links to gangs.<\/p>\n

Officers were called to the pub more than 60 times between 2013 and 2015 to deal with a string of attacks including an attempted murder when a man was stabbed three times.<\/p>\n

One patron was slashed across the face leaving a 12cm gash and another beaten with a pool cue while a punter narrowly avoided being run over on the car park following a dispute.<\/p>\n

The pub re-opened as the Queens Cross in 2022 after being granted a new licence.<\/p>\n

Another pub owned by Mr Hines, the Harp Inn in Walsall Road, Wolverhampton, was forced to close in 2019 again over links to gangs and several violent incidents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Old Crown, now called Paradise Bar, in Sandwell Road, West Bromwich, had been closed since March following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,51,393,4884,8823,379,12,12608,16,15,17299],"class_list":{"0":"post-28797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-ldrs","14":"tag-local-hubs","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sandwell","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-west-bromwich"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114355989819702079","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28797","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=28797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}