The owners of an Ilford bar have been stripped of their personal licences after a stabbing victim was escorted from their venue in a bid to avoid authorities linking the crime to the premises.

Daniel and Natalie Watt, who own Ginger Sky Caribbean Restaurant and Bar in High Road, were removed as the venue’s designated supervisors at meeting of Redbridge Council licensing bosses this morning (February 20).

The borough’s licensing committee had already decided to suspend the bar’s licence indefinitely when it met on January 26, but a decision was also reached to suspend the venue’s licence for a full three months from that date, meaning it cannot open again until April 26.

A police report detailed an incident in which a man was stabbed twice in a “large bar brawl” at Ginger Sky on December 23.

Officers were called but found nothing.

Around 10 minutes later, police received a call to attend the nearby Ali Curry House, where they found a man slumped over surrounded by “tissues on the floor covered in blood.”

The committee reviewed CCTV footage taken from the night in which a fight involving around 10 people breaks out, lasting roughly three minutes.

A suspect was seen to hide an object in his right hand, later used to stab the victim.

At the back of the venue, in a separate incident, a man is seen to threaten a woman with a broken bottle.

A security guard patrols through the centre of the fight with a large dog, but is unable to contain the fighting.

Two security guards eventually escort the victim from the venue, apparently “unaware that he had been stabbed”.

Other excerpts of CCTV footage appear to show clubbers openly smoking marijuana in the presence of owner Daniel Watt.

Councillor Roy Emmett questioned how, with five security guards and a dog, the suspects were able to sneak blades into the venue.

Handing down the verdict, committee chairman Cllr Emmett expressed “serious concerns” over capacity of husband and wife Daniel and Natalie Watt to run the venue.