Ex-Wolves player in hot water with local council over bar lock-ins
Former Wolverhampton Wanderers and Celtic player Mo Camara applies for longer opening hours after having his license suspended for holding late night lock-ins at his wine bar.
Mohamed ‘Mo’ Camara bought Chill Wine Bar in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, in 2014, with the idea of bringing the best local jazz musicians to play at the venue. The bar regularly hosts live jazz acts and serves wine, cocktails and beers at its high street location.
However, last August Camara had his license suspended for one month following complaints made about him serving alcoholic drinks after hours. Councillor Zee Russell, who chaired the hearing, said the council could not allow Camara to get away with “serious breaches”, which included lock-ins on at least three separate occasions. The license hearing heard how punters would visit Camara’s bar after other local pubs closed their doors at midnight, and that people had been seen entering the bar at around 2am on 4 February 2024 and leaving at around 5:30, “shouting and banging car doors.”
Own goal
When the local authorities paid the bar a visit following the complaint, Camara was out of the country and claimed that none of his staff knew how to access the bar’s CCTV. But security footage eventually confirmed the breach, showing the bar full of people on 18 February and 18 March, with drinks continuing to be served at 01:30. The council’s licensing manager Greg Bickerdike dismissed claims that “only soft drinks” were served after hours, calling the claim “fanciful at best”.
Lisa Richardson-Lewty, representing Camara, acknowledged that he had “made poor management decisions” and said the wine bar was now employing “an established and knowledgeable supervisor.” Camara remains the license holder and owner of the bar, which he refers to on the venue’s website as “an oasis of calm in an otherwise hectic world”.
Will it be a red card?
Now, Camara has applied to legally extend the opening hours at the bar, with the council’s licensing committee due to discuss his application on 9 December. According to Birmingham Live, West Midlands police have already objected to the extension on the grounds that they did not support plans to “remove door staff on Friday and Saturday evenings” in favour of “risk-assessed appointments”.
The local council has allegedly continued to receive noise complaints this year following the reinstatement of Camara’s license.
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Councillor Jonathan Crofts said: “It is of great concern that there appears to have been continuing issues with the premises on a number of occasions, particularly Saturday nights and Sunday mornings, even though there was a full review called in 2024 and another full review has just been called for.”
Another objection from an unnamed neighbour in the village where Chill Wine Bar is based said that “loud music, trouble, inconsiderate parking, shouting and swearing” already occurs and that extending the bar’s opening hours “would only make matters worse for local residents”.
As db reported earlier this year, late night drinking has become a luxury, with hospitality and drinks expert Jonathan Kleeman saying that the capital’s after-dark scene is being “suffocated by rising costs, regulatory burden and changing customer habits.”
John Austen, company director of Booths By Lux, added that “running a venue past midnight comes with higher staffing costs, pricier insurance premiums and tighter compliance rules. For owners, those overheads can outweigh the extra revenue from a few more hours of trade, especially when customers are spending less on nights out.”
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