Published
Tue, Sep 20, 2016, 12:44
- Islington law enforcement insist they were not 'getting the club back' after fabric's successful appeal against strict security measures last December.
Metropolitan Police deny their push to close fabric was an attempt at "getting the club back" following the Farringdon venue's successful court appeal last year.
In December of 2015 a court overturned an attempt by local police and Islington Council to enforce strict security measures like ID scans and sniffer dogs. In her ruling, District Judge Allison described fabric as a "beacon of best practice." Nine months later the club was closed, with police describing the venue as a "safe haven for drugs" following the deaths of two 18-year-olds from overdoses.
Speaking to BBC Radio 1, Commander Nick Davies from Islington Police said, "I have only been working in Islington since May, so for me to say it's a vendetta, I don't think so. I had no knowledge of [fabric co-founder] Cameron [Leslie] before this period. But there have been two deaths on my watch, which makes me have to do something."
Leslie's speech to Islington Council's licensing sub-committee, made on the night the council decided to close the venue, suggested the police were "entirely premeditated" in their move to close the club.
"They no longer want to work with us and have decided to get the evidence together to get a summary review," Leslie said. "If anyone thinks for a second that the sensitively named Operation Lenor, a fabric softner, that Central Licensing undertook and the entirely unprofessional conduct that their lead officer took that night in dealing with our management team tells us that this was an entirely premeditated exercise to find the evidence required to be able to serve a summary review. This team started from the end point and gathered evidence accordingly. The only time we stood up to the police in 17 years was by refusing two conditions out of 53 they wanted to punish us with in 2014 and I might add were proven entirely correct by a District Judge that they did not support the licensing objectives."
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