The owner of a Hastings wine bar has intimidated neighbours who raised concerns about violence and noise, according to papers submitted to a licence review hearing.
Hastings Borough Council officers are calling for Bella Wine Bar in George Street to lose its licence, saying it has repeatedly breached its conditions.
Sussex Police is supporting licensing officers, saying management does not know how to work its CCTV and that drug swab tests showed “extremely high readings” for cocaine within the men’s toilets.
The venue’s licence requires table service for any alcohol sales and for food to be available at all times. But the council’s senior licensing officer Kirstie Rolfe said the business has not been adhering to these, despite warnings directed to its owner Ali Altimis.
Ms Rolfe said: “Based on my evidence I do not believe Mr Atilmis can operate the premises in accordance with his licence and will continue to cause a nuisance to nearby residents and businesses.”
Ms Rolfe said CCTV footage recorded on November 30 and December 14 showed people standing and drinking, and customers taking drinks outside after 10pm, also against its licence conditions.
She also noted the premises does not have planning permission to operate as a bar.
Three residents have supported the call to revoke the licence. One, Keir Halliday, detailed an incident on Pirate Day where a drunk man came out of the bar and started causing trouble.
He said: “He then threw a chair against the window of Bella wine bar, smashing all the drinks of the customers outside and pulled a large knife from his trousers, threatening to hurt anyone who got in his way.
“During this whole episode the licensee remained inside the premises and only came out when the young man fled. There was not any attempt to control the disorder.”
Another neighbour, retired magistrate Jane Maier, said she had also seen violence from customers outside the bar.
She said: “Ali is a bad neighbour to me personally, though I have tried to befriend him. When I reasoned with him, that neighbours should try to have reasonable relationships and communication Ali just told me to ‘fuck off’.
“Ali sometimes deliberately places chairs in front of the entrance to my property preventing access and when my 72 year old partner John Mackie moved them to one side in October 2024, I witnessed that Ali went to hit John. He was only prevented from doing so when John’s son intervened.”
She added: “Ali has no concern for laws at all as demonstrated by his totally demolishing the front of the listed building in 2024 replacing it with cheap ugly building materials and finally being forced to reinstate the building to its original state but only after frequent council interventions.”
And another, Yvonne Andrews, said: “I have suffered sleep deprivation and anxiety, made worse by an unpleasant and intimidating visit from the owner who banged on my door to accuse me of making a complaint.”
Sussex Police’s Inspector Simon Burroughs said in August 2024, officers attempted to obtain CCTV footage from the business while investigating a domestic assault in George Street.
But “the applicant [sic] explained that he did not know how to operate the CCTV system and referred officers to the company that installed the system.”
Police officers later learned that the footage had been lost, as the CCTV system only stores recordings for nine days – far less than the 31 days its conditions require.
In her application, Ms Rolfe reports that Mr Altimis had told her in September how the business does now store footage for 31 days – but when asked to supply CCTV footage to her in December, “had to call an engineer out to obtain the footage as he still couldn’t do it himself.”
Ms Rolfe concludes her application by calling on councillors to revoke the premises licence or, alternatively, to remove Mr Altimis from his position as Designated Premises Supervisor, reduce operating hours and suspend the licence while management changes take place.
The review will be carried out by a licensing panel made up of three Hastings councillors on Monday.
