Thai restaurant in St Annes facing closure over separate police probes into modern slavery and sexual communication with a child

An application by PC Guy Harrison, licensing officer, was brought before a Fylde licensing hearing today (Monday July 26) in respect of the Ploy Thai Seafood Restaurant on St Andrews Road South.

The panel’s decision will not be made public for several days.

In documents lodged with Fylde Council, PC Harrison states that on July 23 2022 police were told that two teenage old boys had been shown videos of sexual activity whilst on the restaurant premises, and that sexual comments were made to them.

As a result of this a man, whose name was redacted in the report, was subsequently interviewed by police, with that investigation continuing.

One day later, on July 24, police said they were called to a premises on Clifton Street, Blackpool, by a distressed young woman who claimed she been trafficked into the country and forced into sex work.

PC Harrison’s report, which again removes the name of the suspect, states: “A foreign female claimed to Police that she had been trafficked to Britain earlier that year and was being forced to work as a

prostitute.

"She stated she had been made to pay thousands of pounds a month to the male that owned the property as she owed him for bringing her into the country.

“She also stated that he had possession and control of her passport.”

The male she identified as the trafficker was subsequently arrested and interviewed, with investigations continuing into potential slavery offences.

The police application further stated: "The alleged offences are extremely serious, and anyone convicted of them could potentially face a considerable prison sentence.

“Given the gravity of the allegations and the fact that in the case of one of them, the place of the offence is given as the licenced premises itself, the police would ask the committee that the licence

for Ploy Thai Seafood be revoked.”

The restaurant had previously been given a one-star hygiene rating after investigators found it to be filthy.

They discovered a gas cooker had no control dial, food was stored in broken containers without labels and plants were growing through walls.