Instances of note were a a large brawl inside the bar involving 15 to 20 Black Power members.

On another occasion a police officer visiting the bar found patrons unable to hold a conversation, patrons slumped on stools and other patrons being held up by their friends because they were unable to stand unassisted due to the levels of intoxication. The officer said members of the public would be shocked at the extreme levels of intoxication.

On another occasion the bar was the scene of a large-scale disorder event involving 20 people fighting and bleeding. It required the deployment of numerous police officers and the Police prison truck.

Footage from council CCTV showed that fighting was more serious and frequent outside the bar than at other bars, and that people queuing to enter the bar were often seen vomiting while waiting.

The Rotorua Sports Bar was owned by Golden Empire Holdings Limited. The company’s sole directors and shareholders were Sukhdeep Singh and his wife Kamiljit Kaur, who live in Papamoa.

They have interested in numerous other licensed properties around the North Island, including in Flaxmere, Gisborne, Tauranga and Rotorua.

The Rotorua Sports Bar was overseen by their son Akashdeep Singh. It’s on Arawa Street, a major arterial route into the city centre, and is surrounded by shops, businesses, professional practices and other hospitality venues.

The committee noted an “overall lack of willingness by the applicant to accept responsibility for a number of issues” and said the “applicant attempted to deflect any errors or issues onto others and seemed unwilling to accept that it was his responsibility as licensee to have clear oversight and active management of all aspects of running a licensed premises”.

The committee said the bar was “a magnet for anti-social behaviour such as fighting, yelling, vomiting, urination and public disorder”, and it didn’t believe the applicant was capable of running the bar in a legal manner.

The company appealed to the ARLA and was granted a stay until the appeal was heard.

The appeal was heard in July last year.

The company appealed various aspects of the committee’s decision, and said the committee had erred in law “by admitting and relying on bare allegations and opinion of the Police witnesses” that it said should have been inadmissible or excluded.

The company wanted the committee’s decision to be reversed and the on-licence to be be renewed for three years.

Alternatively, it could go back for a rehearing, but would need to be before a different committee.

Judge Philip Connell, chair of the ARLA, which issued its full decision last month. Photo: Libby Wilson/Stuff.

The ARLA, chaired by Judge Philip Connell, made an oral finding at the hearing, upholding the committee’s decision to refuse renewal of the bar’s licence. The decision had immediate effect, and the bar closed on July 11 last year.

It’s remained closed since then.

The ARLA’s full, 20-page, written decision was released last month. It said the scale of the concerns was made clear upon the viewing of 30 minutes of CCTV footage.

The footage showed “some serious issues around how the premises are being managed and the harm that directly stems from it”, and “One cannot discount the role of the premises when it is right at the centre of the problems. These are exactly the type of alcohol-related harm that the Act is there to minimise,” the ARLA said.

It ruled that the appellant wasn’t suitable to hold an on-licence for the bar and that “the amenity and good order of the locality would likely be increased by more than a minor extent, by refusing the licence renewal”.

Sukhdeep Singh told Stuff he's “really upset” with the decision, which had cost him about $1million.

“I’m still paying the mortgage. It has cost me $68,000 in lawyers fees alone,” he said.

He said he would try to sell the business and building, but he wasn’t sure there would be much interest.

He said he felt the licensing committee was racist and disinclined to grant or renew licenses made by migrants.

“My two sons, my wife and I work very hard in a family business,” he said.

Singh said Black Power gang members did not gather at the bar and “If I close this bar, where do the people go drink? They go to a different bar”.