Bristol's Lakota club racket? Utilities/tax/creditors unpaid, companies collapsed, directors barred

Licencing organised crime at Bristol's Lakota Night Club? Deaths, rape, violence, directors suspended, companies collapsed, utilities, tax & creditors unpaidShow more

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-62331126

https://politicsthisweek.wordpress.com/2023/07/13/not-the-bcfm-politics-show-presented-by-tony-gosling-148/

What’s the connection between the Burgess family and Lakota nightclub?

The transition from the old Avon Coroners court to the Lakota nightclub we have today - Siblings Marti and Bentleigh Burgess bought Lakota in 1994 with private Venture Capital funding.
In 1999, their mother Beverley Burgess set up Beatdraw Ltd to run Lakota, with the siblings' father Vincent Burgess as equal shareholder with Beverley.
..........
Beatdraw continued to operate the nightclub through the naughties but was finally wound up in 2012, In 2013 Teton Events was formed with the following shareholders: Vincent Burgess, Beverley Burgess, Bentleigh Burgess, Martino Burgess, Elanzo Burgess, Brent Taylor and Cassara Burgess,
By January 2017 the premises licence holder for ‘Lakota’ was Teton Events Limited and Designated Premises Supervisor was Bentleigh Burgess.

So in 2013 Teton Events was set up[ to run Lakota – are they still in charge?

Six years after it was formed a Petition to wind up Teton Events was presented on 7 Feb 2019 by the COMMISSIONERS FOR HM REVENUE AND CUSTOMS. Again – just not paying their taxes – VAT again? Its not clear.

But Lakota carried on operating?

In March 2020, the exact same shareholders and directors in Teton Events, set up new company Swift River LLP. But the first black Merchant Venturer, Marti Burgess, now also joined the board of directors. Presumably to bring some expertise from the MV’s corporate lawyers to the board about the latest legal techniques as to what they could and could not get away with. And she appears to have done that because new tactics are being employed -
After Marti joined Two other companies had been set up in parallel to run Lakota in the meantime, Iktomi and Lakota Ltd

So were there any consequences for the non-payment of taxes by Teton events which was wound up in 2019?

Not for three years 0 the wheels of justice turn very slowly
In 2022, Bentleigh Burgess was removed as demanded by the insolvency service. and rather than an individual, Lakota limited was appointed as director.
Bentleigh Shaun Burgess was banned from acting as a director for 3 years from 1 August 2022;
Beverley and Vincent Burgess were banned for 3 years from 15 March 2021.

So why haven’t we heard more about this catalogue of tax evasion - fraud and running up debts they seem to have no intention of ever paying – the organised crime technique of running up bad debts then deliberately collapsing companies every six or seven years? First Beatdraw in 2012 then Teton Events in 2019?

Bentleigh Burgess was one of the original directors at Bristol247. He resigned in July 2022. Marti Burgess is still a director at B247.

What about the actual nightclubbers -

April 2011 - 16 year old Joe Simons from Bath died after buying ecstasy, according to his friend, inside the club.
April 2018 - under age 15 year old Jackson Gibbons from Pontypool who shouldn’t have been allowed into Lakota went in... and later that night died after taking three so called ecstasy pills –
October 2019 – man punched in the face unprovoked – head smashed into the floor and he was taken to hospital with a bleed on the brain
February 2022 – two men assaulted in Lakota one punched in the face who had teeth knocked out and another head butted both needed hospital treatment
June 2022 – a woman is raped inside the Lakota and police release a CCTV image of the suspect
May 2022 –Lakota was the subject of a July 2022 Bristol City Council licensing committee hearing after an illegal rave in St Pauls three minutes walk from Lakota the same night as a US-style ‘Stokes Croft Block Party’. A local resident said because of open drug dealing outside Lakota and feeling frightened and intimidated walking home by groups of drug and alcohol fuelled revellers as well as unbearable noise levels in her flat at 3am which made it impossible to sleep she felt it necessary to ‘flee the area’. It was alleged Lakota had been promoting the event as an ‘experiment, to see what they could get away with’. But close confidant of mayor Marvin Rees, Cllr Marley Bennett dismissed the claims and renewed the club’s licence.
October 2022 – Fatboy slim rave had to be closed down by police after wannabe revellers had been climbing over the walls to an already packed outdoor rave which the owners decided to allow to carry on despite overcrowding way outside their licence.

Marti Burgess is co-chair of Bristol City Council's board Bristol @ Night, sits on the Bristol Cultural Development Partnership, on the board of the Bristol Music Trust. on Bristol City Council's Economy Board, on the City Centre Resilience Board, and on the Western Harbour Advisory