A FORMER crack cocaine smuggler's application to take over and run a major town centre nightclub has been turned down.

Michael Scott, 47, of Cunningham Avenue, Thornaby, wanted to take over the now defunct 1,500-capacity Chicago Rock nightclub in Wilson Street, Middlesbrough, but was refused by Middlesbrough Council. Mr Scott, convicted of possession with intent to supply six years ago, told of his disappointment afterwards, but said part of him had expected to be refused.

He said: "I was kind of expecting it because of my conviction and because of previous problems there had been at the club before it closed.

But it's a question of how long do they hold it against you?

"We would have brought 600 people into the town who wouldn't have been there otherwise and that would have really helped the economy.

"That's 600 more people to buy pizzas, hire taxis and all the rest of it."

Mr Scott, who paid between £5,000 and £6,000 in various fees, including hiring a solicitor, to make his application to reopen the club, said he had no plans to appeal the decision.

He said it could have been viable, despite fewer people going for a night out in Middlesbrough each week, because the weekly rent would have been only £1,100 a week, down from £6,000 when it was last open two years ago.

At Middlesbrough Council's licensing sub-committee hearing, Mr Scott explained that, as well as running a traditional nightclub, he had an agreement with a local radio station to have regular battle of the bands competitions, provide reasonably priced food and hold youth nights.

But the committee agreed with police that the application should be turned down, partly because of Mr Scott's drugs conviction, his five-and-a-half-year sentence and the fact that he had initially pleaded not guilty.

Other reasons cited by the chairman of the committee, Councillor Bernie Taylor, included the fact that Wilson Street is in Middlesbrough Council's "saturation area", identified by police as having too many pubs and being a violence hot-spot.

Cleveland Police had opposed the application, citing previous violence at the club, including a customer having an ear bitten off, another suffering a dislocated elbow and another sustaining facial injuries from glass.

At the hearing, Mr Scott referred to his conviction and said he had simply been the driver and was paid just £500 when he was caught transporting crack cocaine worth nearly £24,000. He said: "I made a mistake and I paid for it. It was my one mistake."