Cherokee chief fined for displaying breasts

Readers may recall the references to Cherokee Leisure on these pages last week

Readers may recall the references to Cherokee Leisure on these pages last week. The Ofex-listed company runs lap-dancing clubs and has diversified into corporate entertainment events, including "Babes on the Green" where nubile young women act as caddies. Cherokee boss David Peters wondered at the time why the investors didn't take his company seriously.

Well, whatever prospect of Cherokee being taken seriously has now probably disappeared, after both it and Mr Peters were slapped with fines by a London court for displaying "naked breasts" without a licence.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Cherokee was fined £45,000 and Mr Peters and fellow director Julian Nyman £6,000 each.

In his ruling, magistrate, Mr William Kennedy, said he had heard "various descriptions of the precise nature of the dancing on display" at Cherokee's club in London, but concluded that the venue was "a sexual encounters establishment".

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Cherokee claimed that as a club, it didn't need a public entertainments licence. But the magistrate was not impressed and said that Cherokee showed a "cavalier disregard for basic standards that would disgrace a corner shop takeaway, let alone a public limited company who have sought the investment of outsiders". That should have the pension funds flocking to invest.

Mind you, it wasn't public decency that led Tower Hamlets Council to take Cherokee to court. Trading standards officer, Mr John McCrohan, told the court: "It's not moral outrage. We do licence striptease premises in the borough but they didn't approach us."