WISBECH: Magistrates close house that was doubling up as off-licence for eight weeks
MAGISTRATES have closed a Wisbech house, which was doubling up as an unofficial off-licence, for eight weeks. Yesterday s ruling for 3 Windsor Drive came after police used anti-social behaviour laws to serve a closure notice. The magistrates ruling means
WEB EXCLUSIVE by: TOM JACKSON
MAGISTRATES have closed a Wisbech house, which was doubling up as an unofficial off-licence, for eight weeks.
The occupants will now have to find a new home, after yesterday's ruling shut down 3 Windsor Drive.
Police used anti-social behaviour laws to serve the closure notice.
Nobody is allowed inside the house until September 22. If anyone does go inside during the closure, they could face up to 51 weeks in prison and/or a fine of up to �5,000
Sgt Dave Bax said after the hearing: "The legislation allows the police to act quickly and return a neighbourhood back to some sense of normality.
Most Read
- 1 Town road to remain closed following serious crash
- 2 Police 'increasingly concerned' for man missing since early hours yesterday
- 3 £150,000 splashpad to open in Wisbech
- 4 Man, 28, dies after truck and lorries crash on A47
- 5 Product sold at Tesco recalled due to risk of disease-causing bacteria
- 6 'Giving a child the chance to be a child lifts my heart’ says foster carer
- 7 Andre Rieu brings new summer concert to Cambridgeshire cinemas
- 8 Painter who captured town before 1978 floods finishes 44 years on
- 9 Discount store expanding making it ‘bigger and better for customers’
- 10 Man and teenager jailed after carrying out ‘horrific’ homophobic attack
"Owners, tenants and landlords of houses, businesses, licensed premises, and other areas where a significant and persistent disorder or serious nuisance is being perpetrated or is associated with the premises, could risk similar measures.
"We will attempt interventions, but where this doesn't work we will actively pursue such orders in the fight against anti-social behaviour and drug dealing."
The order came after police received constant reports of visitors, noise and disturbance from the address.
In June, a search warrant executed at the address found a large stock of cigarettes, home-made vodka and a number of passports and bank cards.
On Tuesday last week, police and customs officers served a temporary notice, while officers waited for the full order to be approved.
At the time, Sgt Bax said: "It was basically a 24/7 off-licence that is not licensed."
