New restaurant failed in its bid to secure an alcohol licence after police claimed it was a front for the owner of a crime-hit former bar

TK Restaurant, on Harehills Lane in east Leeds, was opened by two local taxi drivers earlier this year.

But their application for a booze licence was rejected after a hearing on June 20, Leeds City Council has now confirmed.

The decision had been made by a panel of three councillors on the day but was not made public immediately afterwards.

Police had objected to the licence being given, on the grounds they believed the business was linked to Salman Haydaran, who ran the troubled Shaftesbury Pool Club at the same site for several years.

Three stabbings occurred at the club in as many months in 2019, with PC Andy Clifford telling June’s hearing that it was “one of the worst bars I’ve dealt with”.

In a statement issued this week, the council said the application had been rejected by a “majority” verdict.

Explaining the decision further, it said: “The committee was concerned that the inexperience of the two directors, coupled with the long history of the premises being associated with crime and disorder and public nuisance during the periods when it had been licensed for the sale of alcohol, meant that it was more likely than not that the licensing objectives would be undermined if the licence were to be granted.”

The Shaftesbury was shut down by police in 2019 following the stabbings, but the building re-opened months later under the name, Maddison Bar and Grill.

However, it lost its alcohol licence last year, after the authorities claimed Mr Haydaran was running the business in breach of its conditions.

At a hearing in April 2022, Mr Haydaran denied that claim, but those same proceedings were told he’d admitted it under police caution the previous year.