By Cameron Blackshaw

A massage parlour will not have its licence renewed after a police raid found a naked masseuse and a male customer hiding in a closet, who claimed he was offered a “happy ending” for £20.

The Metropolitan Police and Bromley Council objected to Still Water Spa’s request to renew its special treatment licence at a meeting of the council’s licensing sub-committee on Wednesday (October 29).

The hearing came about after police visited the massage parlour in Homesdale Road, Bromley, on June 17.

They attended the business along with immigration officers following an anonymous tip-off from a taxi driver who said a woman fleeing the spa had flagged down his vehicle, claiming she had been trafficked.

Upon entering the premises, police found two women, one of whom was naked and had locked herself in a side room.

Later, a 26-year-old male customer was found hiding in a closet, who said he was offered a “happy ending” while undergoing a sports massage.

Both women were arrested for immigration offences, and the man was warned for solicitation.

It was revealed at Wednesday’s hearing that neither woman was an employee of Still Water, and spa owner Feihong Liu had left the premises before the police raid to head out for lunch and to visit a pharmacy.

She did not return while officers were at her business despite requests to do so because “she was scared and she panicked”.

One of the women arrested was a friend of Ms Liu’s. According to the spa owner, she had met the woman who was found naked by officers that day after speaking with her in the street and discovering they were from the same province in China.

At the licensing hearing, Ms Liu’s legal representative, Andrew Granville Stafford, said his client did not dispute the police’s version of events for the June 17 incident.

He also said his client was an “experienced and well-trained massage therapist” and a director of two massage businesses “in good standing”.

He explained Ms Liu ran a second massage business responsibly in Waterloo and had no previous convictions or cautions.

Mr Granville Stafford also submitted testimonials from six members of staff at Still Water who described her as a “kind and welcoming person” and “the best boss I have ever met”.

Ms Liu accepted that a lack of supervision led to the incident and accepted full responsibility, but said it was an “isolated incident” and the spa was now being properly run and managed.

In regards to the allegation of trafficking, Mr Granville Stafford said it was hard for his client to answer the accusation without having all the information presented to her.

Bromley Council’s own licensing department objected to the licence renewal because Ms Liu had failed to register all of her members of staff as licensed massage therapists.

Mr Granville Stafford said it was an honest mistake, and with Ms Liu not having English as her first language, this sometimes made it difficult for her to fully understand the necessary forms.

He also said his client was in the process of registering all six members of staff with the authority.

The sub-committee questioned why this had taken so long, as they had not been registered at the time of the police raid in June and were still not registered at the time of the hearing.

The council’s representative, Steve Phillips, disputed whether it had just been a mistake and said it was “quite a serious and important point which the applicant has overlooked” and which “clearly shows she did not read her own licence with its extensive conditions which are very clear”.

He felt the lack of registration “could be considered an intentional act” and felt it was done deliberately “to allow therapists to come and go at will without registration with the local authority”.

The licensing sub-committee refused the licence renewal application after less than an hour’s deliberation.

Ms Liu declined to comment following the decision.