A pub where serious violence broke out twice in a week has become the first in Brighton and Hove to have its licence revoked under tough new drinking laws.

The Toby Inn, in Woodingdean, was permanently closed yesterday by Brighton and Hove City Council, which cited poor management and poor company practice by the giant pub firm that owns it.

The pub had been closed temporarily since the early hours of July 8, after men armed with baseball bats, pickaxes and sledgehammers smashed windows and furniture and attacked customers following a car accident involving a barmaid.

The previous weekend, following England's defeat to Portugal in the World Cup, teenagers refused service were joined by a gang and smashed the pub's windows.

Sussex Police, who arrested 13 men for the two incidents, said they would be happy for the licence to be suspended for three months and the pub to reopen under new management but the council's licensing committee took a harder line.

Chairwoman Jeanne Lepper said: "The panel believes that a three-month suspension, even with a change of management, would not be sufficient to address the problems."

The Licensing Act 2003 transferred licensing powers from magistrates to councils and included stringent new procedures making it easier to take action against problem pubs.

The Toby Inn's owner, London-based Admiral Taverns, said it would appeal against the council's decision.

Toby Inn manager, Karen Overton, 44, discovered she had been effectively sacked and made homeless during yesterday's council meeting.

She and her husband Chris, 40, were employed by a company called Bowbrook, which ran the pub on behalf of Admiral Taverns. Kirk Parmenter, from Admiral Taverns, said Bowbrook had been sacked.

Mrs Overton said: "We have been made the scapegoat for bad company practice and are devastated.

"Our livelihood and our home has gone in one fell swoop and we have not been paid for three weeks.

"We risked a lot coming to Brighton six months ago after running a pub in London for four years. It was all going so well but has ended so terribly."

The couple gathered 500 signatures from neighbours and customers urging the council to keep the pub open.

Frank Menzies, 42, of Bexhill Road, Woodingdean, and a regular at the pub said: "There's 2,000 homes in south Woodingdean and no pub any more.

"I have been using the pub for 21 years and am flabbergasted by this, it's a bitter blow for the community."

Sussex Police Inspector Bill Whitehead, in charge of licensing in Brighton and Hove, said: "I have sympathy for the community who used the premises but pubs must be well run and safe to meet licensing objectives and the panel took the view that this one was not and was not likely to be in the future."

Inspector Whitehead said there was a history of trouble at the pub and police had received 33 calls about it in the past year.