Sussex Police calls for Hastings restaurants to be stripped of licences

Next Tuesday (May 7), a Hastings Borough Council licensing panel is due to consider police applications to revoke the licences of Ocean Spice in White Rock and The Balti Hut in Queens Road.

According to the police application, two licence holders associated with the businesses — Shahnur Rahman and his father Siddiquar Rahman — were sentenced on November 18 last year for offences stemming from a January 2022 assault on an 18-year-old man from Sudan.

Police say the teenager had been working illegally at The Balti Hut at the time and was attacked after he threatened to contact authorities about working conditions and unpaid wages.

The police application sets out how Shahnur Rahman, then licence holder for The Balti Hut, was jailed for four years for attempted GBH, while Siddiquar Rahman, licence holder for Ocean Spice, was convicted of affray and given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

The police application goes on to set out how Shahnur Rahman’s brothers Mominur Rahman and Ridwanur Rahman also received prison sentences. Mominur Rahman was jailed for four years and five months, while Ridwanur Rahman was jailed for three years and nine months. Both were convicted of attempted GBH, the police application says.

In the review application, Inspector Simon Burroughs of Sussex Police said: “The victim of the brutal assault was a vulnerable male who was clearly taken advantage of when illegally employed at The Balti Hut.

“Knowing his illegal status, The Rahman family exploited him by initially paying him less than the minimum wage and ultimately refusing to pay him at all for work completed.

“The Rahman family had previously received fines totalling £90,000 for employing illegal immigrants at The Ocean Spice. This suggests a flagrant disregard for the law and the welfare of a number of vulnerable victims by the owners and employees at The Balti Hut and Ocean Spice.”

In light of the convictions, Sussex Police says Shahnur and Siddiquar Rahman are “not fit” to be licence holders and have called on Hastings Borough Council to revoke the businesses’ licences.

Currently, The Balti Hut holds a licence for late night refreshments, which allows the business to sell hot food after 11pm. This licence had been held by Shahanur Rahman, but it was transferred to another family member — named as Nafisa Rahman in council documents — in March 2024, after the police application was lodged.

Ocean Spice has a premises licence which allows for both the sale of alcohol and late night refreshments. This licence is held by Siddiquar Rahman.

Papers to be considered at the hearing include a memo from Bob Brown, a senior licensing officer at Hastings Borough Council. This memo sets out how the licence held by Ocean Spice had previously been revoked in January 2020 after the business was fined for employing staff with no right to work in the UK on three occasions. The licence was reinstated in February 2022 after the council agreed a consent order with the restaurant in October 2021.

The calls to revoke Ocean Spice’s licence is supported by Hasting Borough Council’s own licensing team and HM Immigration Enforcement.