A LAPDANCING club’s licence looks set to be granted – but an Argus investigation has revealed questions about its ownership and its links to a convicted sex offender.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s licensing committee, which was to discuss the Pussycat Club in Grand Parade tonight, has been cancelled.

Last week The Argus reported the 59-page agenda for the meeting had been published with only a title page and seating plan and then 56 blank pages because the matter had been “reserved” for private discussion.

Sussex Police objected to the licence because the designated manager, Kenneth McGrath, was jailed earlier this month for paying for the sexual services of a child on his yacht in Majorca.

Some agenda pages for the cancelled meeting have now been made public, confirming the police objection.

The police told The Argus yesterday they would have argued McGrath would not be a fit and proper person to hold a licence for a Sexual Entertainment Venue.

However an application was made, a week after Kenneth McGrath’s conviction, to vary the name of the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) to Kristopher John McGrath - Kenneth’s son.

The police are understood to have withdrawn their objection on this basis, leading to the cancellation of the meeting.

In the absence of an objection from police or residents, a licensing renewal decision is taken by officers, who do not usually deny such a request if there is no objection.

However, an investigation by The Argus suggests convicted sex offender Kenneth McGrath will retain close links to The Pussycat Club, and the opportunity of financial benefit from, the establishment.

And the council’s policy states: “A licence will not normally be granted or renewed... under the following circumstances... that if the licence were to be granted or renewed, the business to which it relates would be managed by, or carried on for the benefit of, a person other than the applicant, who would be refused the grant or renewal of such a licence if he made the application himself.”

The application to vary the DPS for the Pussycat Club was made by the business owner, Saltire Investments Ltd.

Saltire Investments Ltd has one director: Kenneth McGrath’s 29-year-old son, Kristopher.

Kenneth McGrath was also a director of Saltire Investments but left the company in 2013.

But in 2012 Saltire created a “debenture” to the value of more than £350,000, which has yet to be satisfied.

A debenture is a legal document securing a loan against assets of the business to which the loan is made.

Saltire’s 2012 debenture for £353,556 is secured against Saltire’s business assets, including the leasehold of the Pussycat Club, and an apartment and yacht in Majorca.

The debenture means that if anything were to happen to the business, those persons named on the debenture would have first call on its assets.

The persons entitled to the debenture - and therefore with a vested interest in the business to the tune of a third of a million pounds - are named as Kenneth McGrath, and Dawn Strong, both of the same address.

At both Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove City Council the most relevant staff were not available to answer The Argus’s questions yesterday.

The businessman, of St Martin’s Place, Brighton, was jailed for three years last month.

The court was told he “took advantage” of his victim’s “isolation and vulnerability” to coerce her into a sexual act with him.

Calls to the Pussycat Club went unanswered yesterday.