Soho strip club calls alleged victims of £250K theft lying husbands who spent ‘money on strippers’

By Jacob Phillips, Local Democracy Reporter

A Soho strip club has been shut down for three months after a series of alleged spikings led to victims losing £250,000, according to a council report.

But the venue suggested husbands were lying as they didn’t want to admit “they spent summer holiday money on strippers”.

Visitors to Vanity Bar and Nightclub in Carlisle Street, Soho have complained to the police that they have lost up to £98,000 and woken up in random places.

Police have shared details of at least 10 reported incidents where alleged victims have checked their accounts to find huge sums missing from their accounts.

In one alleged incident at the venue, someone reported a stolen £19,000 watch to police.

But the strip club has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the police’s investigation into the alleged spikings and fraud was “half-baked” and “sloppy” at a Westminster city council licensing committee meeting on Monday.

Representing Vanity, lawyer Gary Grant accused police officers of not fully reading crime reports before trying to shut the place down.

Mr Grant told the meeting: “The police approach is a broad brush. It is ‘look at how many complaints there are, there can’t be smoke without fire…’ with respect we disagree.”

The lawyer alleged that some of the evidence was brought about because alleged victims were trying to make excuses to their partners.

He claimed: “There are instances of when the wives, girlfriends and partners have found out because they’ve been pinged by their bank about what’s going on.

“It is not uncommon during allegations for those men to say ‘I’m sorry it wasn’t me I must have had my drink spiked and that explains why I spent our summer holiday money on strippers’.”

The strip club instead argued the drink spikings may have been taking place at brothels later in the night rather than at the strip club.

Most recently a man claimed he woke up in a street near his home after blacking out when he visited the strip club on November 26, 2022.

He recalled buying a drink, dancing and being led to a separate area, but claimed he had no other memories until he woke up the next day.

When he checked his bank account he had sent money to a number of accounts he did not know and had lost £16,000.

Following the incident, the police asked Westminster city council to review the strip club’s license.

When police officers asked the strip club for CCTV footage, staff allegedly tried to avoid showing the Met the correct timings.

When they did manage to see the requested footage they saw men touching the dancers and kissing, something that is banned under sexual entertainment licensing rules.

Met lawyer Gerald Gouriet KC said that it did not matter if someone was spiked or not and insisted Vanity had a “heavy burden” for letting people leave their premises in a vulnerable position.

He told the Westminster city council licensing meeting: “The victim on November 24 leaves the premises and suffers thousands upon thousands of loss on his credit cards.

“Leaving as he did in the state that he did is the responsibility of Vanity and they have the heavy burden of responsibility for what happens to him afterwards.”

Pictured top: Vanity strip club in Soho (Picture: Google Street View)