Police officers who requested CCTV said they saw multiple incidents of touching between men and dancers – outlawed under sexual entertainment licensing rules

LICENSING chiefs are due to decide whether a strip club can reopen after it was shut down following allegations of “spiking” and hundreds of thousands of pounds of unauthorised bank transactions.

Police say a man discovered £3,000 had been billed to his bank account by the club in Soho before “numerous other transactions” were made to different people and companies totalling £16,000, according to a report to the city council.

An investigation was launched after 10 such complaints were made about the same venue in the last year.

Most said they could remember going into the venue before waking up in strange places and discovering large sums missing from bank accounts.

There is no medical evidence of spiking and dancers and security guards have written in defence of the venue’s management, warning regretful men often claim they were robbed when the shame kicks in or “their wife finds out”.

A police report said: “It appears there have been 10 allegations this year of a similar nature with a total of nearly £250,000 being taken. Some individuals have mentioned these have been reported to the venue but with no action taken.”

Other reports reveal details of one man “accepting a drink” before turning “hazy” and before “unknown girls repeatedly slap him around the face asking for bank card and phone details”.

In this case, £98,000 was allegedly transferred out of his account.

Another reveals a £19,000 watch being taken after a similar experience at the same venue.

A witness said: “As a 49-year-old man this is not what I expect to happen to you and I find this difficult as I do not want people to know I lost that amount of money. I have considered suicide following this incident.”

Police officers who requested CCTV from the November night said they saw multiple incidents of touching between men and the dancers, something that is outlawed under sexual entertainment licensing rules.

Photographs showed a series of men; one “with his hand in between dancer’s legs on her vagina, then hand moves in and out between dancer’s legs”; and “male appears to stop sucking on dancer’s breast when she hands him the shot glass, they all down a shot”; while another showed one “male and dancer stood up embracing each other and kissing on lips”.

The unnamed club has not commented or provided a statement to the committee but several representations have been made in support of it, including a security consultant, taxi drivers and dancers working at the venue.

Supportive comments from one dancer said: “I have seen grown men crying with regret at the amount of money they’d spent and at the thought of having to explain to a partner or spouse exactly where the money went.

“Very regularly, if they don’t get the result they are looking for, they will then start to throw allegations of overcharging etc around hoping this will prompt the result they want. This is clearly what has happened in these cases.”

Another called the club “a positive staple in the Soho community” and how one man was helped by the club’s staff after an attack in the street. One black cab driver wrote to say that the charges were preposterous.

Residents have written in support of the licence review that will be decided by Westminster City Council’s committee on Monday. The licensing committee moved to shut the club just before Christmas ahead of next week’s hearing warning of their “extreme concern” for the protection of the public.