Birmingham's Legs 11 lap dancing club loses licence
A lap dancing club which allegedly drugged customers and took more than £90,000 in credit card overpayments has had its alcohol licence revoked.
Legs 11 on Broad Street, Birmingham, had the licence suspended on 4 July over police claims it was associated with "serious crime".
Barbara Dring, the city council's licensing sub-committee chair, said it was revoked to protect public safety.
Legs 11 has not responded to requests for a comment.
Chris Neville, head of licensing, said the club had ceased trading. Its Sexual Entertainment Venue (SEV) licence was revoked earlier this month.
"We were really shocked at what was happening on those premises," he added.
Supt Andy Parsons, of West Midlands Police, called for the licence review saying the club was "associated with serious crime".
In the committee's report, he said two men had claimed they were drugged, with one testing positive for methadone with a home testing kit.
The club was being investigated over 17 fraud-related allegations since 2013, police said.
Some customers paid for dances "in a private area" but additional transactions were taking place that they had not authorised, Supt Parsons added.
One victim claimed he had lost as much as £19,417.
Mrs Dring said councillors saw "deeply concerning" CCTV footage in the meeting, which was closed to the public, including of sales of alcohol to "clearly inebriated" patrons.
They heard evidence customers had lost "significant sums of money" through unauthorised transactions, while others were "routinely overcharged" by the venue which turned over £1.6m in one six-month period, she said.
The committee heard at least one patron was offered sex in exchange for money, contravening the rules of the licence.
Mr Neville said the next step was to see what criminal proceedings would follow and the council would also check other lap dancing clubs in the city were being run appropriately.