Bar's licence revoked after owner's conviction

A bar and restaurant has had its premises licence revoked by a council after the venue's owner was convicted of theft.

Christopher Nunn, 42, admitted stealing £300,000 worth of books, which belonged to the firm LexisNexis, between March 2019 and September 2023.

The owner of Wine Vaults Bar and Restaurant in Beccles, Suffolk, will be sentenced on 5 June at Ipswich Crown Court.

East Suffolk Council's licensing sub-committee said it decided to take the licence away as Mr Nunn's conviction was "incompatible with the promotion of the licensing objective for the prevention of crime and disorder".

The sub-committee's hearing on Monday heard from John Corkett, a licensing officer at Suffolk Constabulary.

He told the hearing that whilst working at a book printing business in Beccles, Mr Nunn had illegitimately sold legal textbooks online without the knowledge of the publisher.

Mr Corkett said that a customer bought one of the books on Amazon and then contacted LexisNexis asking why the books were priced significantly lower than they were usually sold for.

The hearing heard that the book listings were tracked back to a company run by Mr Nunn, he was suspended by his employer and arrested in 2023.

The hearing was told that Mr Nunn took over the ownership of Wine Vaults Bar and Restaurant in 2022.

Mr Corkett claimed money was being put through the business from the book sales as a way of laundering it.

He said: "It's almost impossible to come to any other conclusion, that this is illegitimate money being passed through these accounts."

James Winter-Whitaker, who represented Mr Nunn at the hearing, had asked for the meeting to be adjourned until a later date.

He argued that he had only been appointed at the start of April and needed more time to gather material and process bank statements.

The request to adjourn the hearing was rejected.

Mr Winter-Whitaker said there were "errors" in the police statement.

Part of the hearing was held in private, which the public and press were not allowed to watch, including any defence from Mr Nunn and his solicitor.

Mr Nunn and Fisher & Co solicitors said they had no further comment to add when asked by the BBC.

Mr Nunn has 21 days to appeal the decision.

Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.