A Bexleyheath business has been fined after ignoring noise complaints after continually playing loud music on Friday and Saturday nights.

Former company director of The Bank Restaurant and Bar Ltd, Paul Moran, must pay over £11,000 for his part in putting local residents ‘through hell,’ after persistently flouting notices about the noise to stop.

Officers reported bass music that resulted in vibrating floors, walls, windows and other surfaces and furniture of the lounge and master bedroom in the residents’ flat above the business.

The venue, previously trading in Bexleyheath as Bank 269, was first served notices by the council in July last year.

TOP STORIES: At one point, to try and bring an end to the nuisance, officers used a warrant to seize sound equipment from the premises on March 6 this year.

The business replaced the equipment the following day, which was witnessed by officers as worse than before.

The business appealed the notice initially but then withdrew its application in February this year.

It took a second separate legal action by the council, in which an application was made to the High Court in May this year, before the music was ceased and the business sold.

The prosecution was brought against The Bank Restaurant and Bar Ltd, as well as against Scott Collins, 32 of Upton Road, Bexleyheath and Paul Moran 36, of Winnipeg Drive, Orpington, who were, at the time, the manager and company director respectively.

The trial for Collins and Moran took place on October 27 this year.

At the start of proceedings Collins changed his plea to guilty.

The court fined him £3,000 and ordered him to pay £1,400 costs and a £120 victim surcharge, telling him that as the manager and designated premises supervisor for the business, he had been in a position that would have allowed him to control the levels of music played in the premises.

He was told that he could, and should, have done more to stop the nuisance.

Moran, having heard his mitigation, showed no remorse and provided no apology. 

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Bexley Magistrate Court

The court fined him £7,000 and ordered him to pay £1,000 in compensation, £3,094 costs, and £120 victim surcharge.

The company’s new owners also became liable in the business handover and pleaded guilty to the offence at an earlier hearing in August.

The ruling came at a sentencing hearing before Bexley Magistrates' Court on November 4.

Afterwards, Coun Peter Craske said: "The London Borough of Bexley has taken firm action in support of the residents affected by this noise and disturbance and I am sure they will welcome this verdict.

“I also thank the council team for pursuing this matter in the robust way they have."

Officers from Bexley's Environmental Protection team first received a complaint about noise from The Bank in February 2014.