A restaurant and takeaway has been caught trading outside of its opening hours.

Zaf’ron, in Brighton's North Road, has applied for a late-night refreshment licence so that it can trade until 3am seven days a week.

The application follows licensing visits by Sussex Police and Brighton and Hove City Council when the business, Zaf’ron, was found to have been trading later than it should have been.

Both the council and police have objected to the application and Inspector Dan Eagle wrote: “Sussex Police have no confidence in the company applying for this premises licence.”

His formal objection reflects an email sent last November by police licensing officer Mark Thorogood after the Afghani and Persian restaurant was caught trading after 11pm without a licence.

The email said: “When we spoke to you about this, you advised that it had been a busy night and you were not aware of the time and tried to make out this is the first time this has happened.

“We then pointed out the opening hours on your paper menus and on the Just Eat app which stated you are open until midnight seven days a week.

“We have since also noticed this is the same on Google and Facebook which leads us to believe you have not been totally truthful with us about this being a one-off.”

On August 8, Mr Thorogood wrote to Zaf’ron’s director Rafiullah Khan, 20, of Chelwood Close, Hollingbury, after another licensing inspection at 11.50pm on Saturday 3 August.

He said: “On approaching the premises, staff could be seen to hurriedly run to close the shop insisting that they had closed already.

“However, food could still be seen being cooked on the grill and the sign on the door indicating it was open.

“To be able to trade hot food and drinks beyond 11pm, the premises must hold a late-night refreshments licence.

“This is disappointing to see this premises trading beyond 11pm without a licence seeing a warning was given in November 2023 for the very same reason.”

The application by Zaf’ron said that the premises could seat about 25 people and would employ a “door supervisor” and have security cameras inside and out.

But the premises is in a busy area where, council licensing official Donna Lynsdale said, “the concentration of licensed premises and the subsequent numbers of people drawn into the city centre is causing exceptional problems of crime and disorder and public nuisance”.

As a result, the council does not tend to grant new late-night licences except in exceptional circumstances when an applicant can show that the premises would not add to the existing problems.

Ms Lynsdale wrote that Mr Khan “has not offered any mitigation or explanation regarding the potential impact… and has not demonstrated how the application is an exception to our policy”.

Inspector Eagle wrote that more than 400 crimes were reported with a few hundred yards of the premises over the past year. Of these, 153 were thefts, 99 involved violence and 52 were public order offences.

While he did not link any of the offences directly to the premises, he said: “These crimes occur 24 hours a day but 65 crimes (out of 403) were reported between the hours of midnight to 3am.”

Both the council and police have formally objected to a licence being granted and asked that a panel, made up of three councillors, reject the application.

The panel is due to hold a remote hearing tomorrow (Tuesday 20 August) and to decide whether to grant a licence.