Dunedin’s notorious Eleven Bar loses liquor licence

It flouted Covid regulations, served alcohol to intoxicated punters while the partners turned the bar into their “own drinking hole’’, and the bar’s licence has been cancelled with immediate effect.

Dunedin’s Eleven Bar was the subject of a 68-page decision by the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (ARLA) which was released on Friday after a three-day hearing in March.

The Octagon-based bar was owned by Prakash Khattri (50% shareholding) and Naveen Malhotra and Nikesh Singh (25%), with the latter two holding manager’s certificates.

It was their first liquor licence, and which was subject to renewal after 12 months, however, breaches occurred during their probationary year, raising concerns from authorities, including police.

The bar made national headlines in February last year when Stuff showed footage of revellers flouting rules during the Government’s Covid-19 red setting while inside the bar.

A female witness also gave evidence to being provided free alcohol in the form of tequila shots, and on the condition she offered her phone to be taken away she went upstairs to what was effectively a “lock-in”.

Upstairs there were older males, including one who said, “I want to f*** you very hard”, who then tried to dance with her friend.

A female staff member took them to a corner and told them to leave as the men would try to take them home with them. She let them out of the bar.

Police argued that it was an aggravating factor that the target market for the premises was the vulnerable student community, which ranged in age from 18-25.

The bar owners claimed those events were private events and that there was a list at the door, but this was not the case, police found.

ARLA agreed, and in the decision noted: ‘’that this was a manufactured private event that was little more than a guise to trade as business as usual, at a time when the law prohibited it’’.

Another check on the premise, this time on July 10 last year, found a man falling asleep against the bar’s window. A police officer found the man had drunk four pints of beer between one-two hours, and was intoxicated.

A former employee gave evidence that the partners used the premises as their “own drinking hole”, and he once banned Singh from the bar after he brought underage females inside.

Under cross-examination Singh said two of those girls were his daughters and one of his daughter’s friend.

Both Singh and Malhotra would openly tell him that were happy to pay fines when it came to Covid-19 regulations, and that attitude extended to council compliance.

But the owners argued that all concerns heard at the hearing were in the past, and that they were focused on improving the bar’s operations.

Of the lock-in involving the young women, the decision noted that ARLA “feels uncomfortable with this whole scenario’’.

“The fact that their phones were taken off them adds to the suspicion of predatory behaviour.’’

ARLA agreed with the police that the bar owners showed, on numerous occasions, “their complete disregard not only for the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act but also for other legislative requirements’’.

“That they have shown a complete lack of concern for their contribution to the harm they are contributing to within a highly vulnerable community which particularly comprises of the younger student population.’’

ARLA found the shareholders failed to conduct the premises in a proper manner, allowed people to become intoxicated on the premises, breached conditions of the licence, and they were not considered them suitable to be holders of a licence/manager’s certificate.

It ordered the cancellation of its on-licence and the duty manager’s certificate.

The Authority noted that Eleven Bar’s licence renewal application had also been heard by the Dunedin District Licensing Committee, which led to the premises losing its liquor licence after authorities opposed a renewal application.

The business had applied for a renewal of its on-licence, but all three reporting agencies – police, the medical officer of health, and licensing inspector – opposed it.