A BAR has been ordered to shut after class A drugs were found on the premises.

Police found the drugs in the private rooms above Inferno’s, in Bellegrove Road, Welling, and applied for an interim closure on the grounds that the bar had been used for serious crime.

An emergency meeting of Bexley council’s licensing sub-committee on Friday afternoon decided to suspend the pub’s licence from 7pm until a licence review hearing.

PC Eddy Boston of Bexley police made the application under section 53 of the Licensing Act behind closed doors.

Julia Defries, representing the landlord, told the committee that the designated supervisor had been replaced and that business owner Barter Inns had had no knowledge of drugs being kept in the private rooms.

Summing up the evidence in public, committee chairman Cllr Mike Slaughter said members of staff had received regular enquiries about the availability of drugs.

He said: “The sub-committee has decided to suspend the licence until the full review hearing. The suspension will break the cycle of people who may deal or use drugs at the premises.”

Last October, the council suspended Inferno’s licence for four weeks and ordered that the designated supervisor be replaced because it felt the licence had been seriously undermined by the then management.

The bar cannot appeal the decision until the full review hearing, scheduled for March 26.