Three people running a bar and restaurant have been fined almost £3,000 for allowing customers to drink outside after 10pm.

Elliot Exley and Peter Shanks, licence holders of The Grove, in the Grove, Ilkley, were fined £1,000 each, while supervisor Emma Ruffe was fined £900, by Bradford magistrates for breaching a condition forbidding the consumption of food and alcohol in the external areas of the premises after 10pm.

The three were each ordered to pay £350 costs and a £15 Victims’ Surcharge.

The case went to court after a series of complaints from people living nearby.

Bradford licensing panel chairman Councillor John Ruding said: “People should have confidence in our determination to ensure licence conditions are complied with.

“Conditions are put there to prevent the operation of licensed premises from causing a nuisance to others.

“Those who ignore them can end up facing prosecution.”

The fines come less than 18 months after Exley and Shanks took over and refurbished The Grove and pledged to keep disturbance to nearby residents down to a minimum.

The duo faced objections to The Grove being granted a licence in September 2009, but it was eventually approved with similar conditions to previous owners.