A social club could be stripped of its licence to sell alcohol after illegal gambling machines were found on site – and it was later found illegally open during lockdown.

Officials from Haringey Council’s regulatory services team found the machines at Philip Lane Social Club in Philip Lane, Tottenham, during a visit in February, along with an illegal waste dump on the roadside that was later discovered to be from the club.

It follows a series of enforcement actions taken during Ali Toprak’s management of the club – including a £600 fine over illegal gambling machines in 2018.

Further visits in June revealed the club was open during the coronavirus lockdown, in breach of Government regulations.

Officials also discovered changes had been made at the back of the premises to create an additional social club run by a man who pays rent to Mr Toprak.

The council’s enforcement team applied for a review of the premises licence on the grounds that Mr Toprak had failed to uphold the objective of preventing crime and disorder.

At a special meeting of the licensing sub-committee on Tuesday (August 25), licensing team leader Daliah Barrett said the local authority had “lost confidence in the premises licence holder”.

Shortly after Mr Toprak was invited to speak, the livestream of the meeting went down for several minutes.

After it resumed, Mr Toprak, speaking via a translator, claimed he had let one of his friends run the club while he suffered from a bout of ill health and was not fully aware of what was going on at the premises.

But Ms Barrett pointed out that as the licence holder and designated premises supervisor, Mr Toprak was ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with the licensing conditions and objectives.

Sarah Greer, the council’s interim enforcement manager, said that when she visited in February, Mr Toprak was present and the gambling machines were switched on.

Mr Toprak later said the machines were on the premises because customers liked to play on them and had asked him to keep them in the club.

Ms Greer told the meeting she would like to go ahead with a revocation of the licence.

After hearing the evidence, the committee can decide to revoke the licence or take a range of other steps such as suspending it or changing its conditions.

A decision will be published within five working days of the meeting.