Hearing to decide if club can re-open

A hearing will decide whether a club can re-open after it was forced to close for employing an illegal worker.

Calif Bar in Stafford Street, Wolverhampton, was forced to close earlier this year after its licence was revoked by City of Wolverhampton Council for employing an illegal worker.

Just weeks later, a move to re-open the Stafford Street club as Vivant Lounge was put forward with applicant Lucky Iguodala asking for 11am to 5am opening hours.

The council’s licensing committee meets on August 26 after postponing a decision in July to allow for Mr Iguodala to address concerns raised by West Midlands Fire Service.

West Midlands Fire Service had objected to the application saying the venue’s fire safety risk assessments were “not suitable or sufficient.”

West Midlands Police had also raised concerns about the new application and asked for the club’s closing time to be cut to 2am.

The venue also sits within the council’s ‘cumulative impact zone’ due to higher crime and disorder rates and the density of pubs, clubs, late-night venues and takeaways in the city centre.

This means that new licence applications are subject to stricter conditions and the onus is put on new venues to prove their business will not add to existing issues.

City of Wolverhampton Council’s licensing committee revoked Calif Bar’s licence in April saying owner Isi Lucky Idahor had shown a “total lack of compliance with rules and regulations” and believed he was unfit to run the venue when deciding to close the nightclub and restaurant.

Calif Bar was fined £45,000 last year after the Home Office’s immigration enforcement officers discovered Mr Idahor had employed a chef who had no right to work in the UK – which remains unpaid. 

The woman, who was arrested by immigration officers following the inspection, had held a valid visiting visa from September 2007 to March 2008 but did not return when it expired and had never held the right to work in the UK. 

Mr Idahor said he put the club into liquidation in September last year because he was unable to pay the £45,000 fine or a £14,000 fine from magistrates for breaching hygiene standards in 2022. 

Home Office immigration officers had inspected the club in May last year only to be given false personal details by the unnamed member of staff who later said she had been employed by the club for around a year as a chef working three hours a day, once or twice a week. 

However, Mr Idahor, who has run the city centre venue since 2014, contradicted this later telling officers that the woman had worked for him for around two months doing small jobs on an irregular basis. 

He also told officers that he had seen a page from her passport but was unaware she had no right to work in the UK.