A London strip club owner has defended withholding thousands of pounds in dancers’ tips, claiming that performers had gone “too far”.
SophistiCats owner John McKeown said he acted after customers began complaining about a “small group” of dancers in March last year.
Mr McKeown said he refunded gratuities worth £3,000 each to clients over a three-week period.
Speaking at a Westminster City Council meeting on Wednesday, Mr McKeown said: “My philosophy has always been that the performers can go home and look in the mirror and be happy with what’s gone on, that they’re empowered and in control and the power sits with them, not the customer. And we’ve managed to do that. But, unfortunately, in this particular instance, the performers just went too far.
“They pushed the clients too far, they took advantage of two or three clients and I simply had to draw a line and the result is some of them have lost – not an insubstantial amount of money – but around £2,000 to £3,000 each.”
He said the performers still received their hourly wage. He also said the amount wasn’t going to “break them”, adding dancers can make up to £5,000 a week.
He even said many of the dancers who left over the issue have now returned. Mr McKeown said the company had a policy of holding performers’ tips for 14 weeks because customers can be “a little foolish” with their money and later request a refund after realising how much they had been spent.
He said the performers were “well aware” of this policy.
It comes as Westminster City Council renewed SophistiCats’ Sexual Entertainment Venue licence following a speedy licensing meeting on Wednesday.
The council said Mr McKeown had run strip joints in Westminster over the past 25 years with a practically unblemished record. They also said the Metropolitan Police and their own licensing officers had dropped previous objections against the club.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the committee said: “The sub-committee have regard to the representations that have been submitted against the application but the sub-committee considered the applicant was suitable given John Mckeown’s long experience of operating SEVs in Westminster and given the fact there were no outstanding objections from responsible authorities.”
Mr McKeown applied to renew the club’s licence in September last year.
The application received a barrage of objections from anonymous performers and customers. One objector said SophistiCats was “a very bad place to work” and forced dancers to sell expensive Champagne.
Another claimed the pressure on dancers affected their mental health on a daily basis.
They wrote: “The club environment is extremely toxic, and many have suffered a great deal, which has had an impact on them even to this day. Please do not give them their license and allow them to continue this unacceptable behaviour. Please think of the girls.”
The case is currently before a work tribunal. SophistiCats has previously said performers are not forced to sell Champagne to customers.
A director at the club said customers looking to hire a VIP booth have to purchase vintage Champagne, which starts at £350 a bottle and are made aware of this by staff at the door.
SophistiCats said the owed earnings were tied up in ‘chargebacks’, which the club’s director described as the freezing of a transaction on a customer’s card by their bank. He said this is a common occurrence and happens when customers challenge purchases.
