Ripley nightclub has licence revoked after catalogue of incidents

A notorious Ripley nightclub has had its licence revoked after a panel heard the venue had 47 incidents associated with it in a 12-month period, including someone being stabbed and another person being glassed.

Crib Bar, on Church Street, is owned by Speed 9761 Limited, however, between 31 October 2021 and 17 October 2022, a total of 42 police crime reports were generated naming the bar as the location.

At a licence hearing at Amber Valley Borough Council on Friday 3 February, the panel was told the venue had been associated with a stabbing, a knuckleduster attack and two assaults on police officers. The venue had also demanded and increasing number of police resources to deal with the disorder associated with it.

In documents submitted to the panel, our officers listed the 47 incidents that had been recorded either inside or outside the Crib Bar over the 12-month period. They included a number of incidents on 31 October 2021 which culminated in a man being stabbed three times in the abdomen and a police officer being assaulted while trying to disperse customers.

During that night a dispersal order was granted to try and clear the customers away from the venue and reopen Church Street after it was closed by police while they dealt with the incidents.

On 2 October 2022, several reports were made to police again surrounding the Crib Bar including numerous violent assaults within the venue. An officer was also headbutted after being called to the bar.

The hearing was also told that there were a number of other incidents that had happened in or around the bar that hadn’t been registered in the venue’s incident log and staff had no recollection of them. These included one act of violence that saw a man being headbutted and suffer a broken nose.

Solicitor Nicholas Leviseur, who appeared representing Crib Bar, argued the police’s case was “unfair” and “unhelpful” especially given the amount of work the bar had done with police. He argued the bar was being run “by a man who takes his responsibilities seriously”.

However, Amber Valley Borough Council’s licencing panel disagreed and voted to revoke the licence of the bar.

Police Constable Ady Clarke, Licensing Officer for Derbyshire police, said: “While it’s sad that one of Ripley’s night-time venues has closed in this manner the time had come for action to be taken.

“We had several discussions with Mr Askew and his team with regards to the Crib Bar’s violent incidents, compliance, and ‘Free’ promotions, which gave us concerns.

“As far as we were concerned it was only a matter of time before another violent incident took place at the venue and the consequences of that could’ve been so much worse than had already happened.

“We welcome the decision of the licensing panel and will continue to work with licence holders in Ripley and across the county to ensure that our city and town centres are as safe as possible for people to enjoy a drink and a night out.”