A NIGHTCLUB in Finsbury Park has been stripped of its licence after a bouncer allegedly hit a punter with a metal pole on Christmas Day.

Bosses at the Orleans Wine Bar in Seven Sisters Road were hauled into the Town Hall on Monday to have their licence temporarily revoked. This meant it could not operate over New Year.

One of the venue’s security staff allegedly used the pole and then denied any knowledge of the incident when police questioned him in the early hours of Christmas Day, according to council documents.

Officers were flag­ged down by a member of the public at 2.30am after a man was found lying on the pavement with “significant bleed­ing” coming from his head, the police report by Sergeant Neil Fraser said.

Door staff told the officer on the night that they “did not know” how the man had suffered his injuries.

The police then viewed CCTV which it is alleged showed that a man was kicked out of the club after “causing a nuisance and attempting to attack door staff”. The man walks away but comes back throwing objects at the bouncers.

One, according to the police account sent to the Town Hall, appears on the CCTV to have responded by using the metal pole.

The case was investigated as possible grievous bodily harm and affray. Three men were arrested but nobody has been charged, the police said.

One man was taken to hospital but released later.

A council spokeswoman said: “The Licensing Sub-Committee also heard from police that this most recent serious incident is not the first occurrence of a serious act of violence this year to which the venue has failed to respond appropriately.”

Anthony Raphael, who has been involved with running the venue for almost 30 years, told the Tribune: “The security was out of line to behave like that but it is New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and I think the council was a bit hasty to actually close the club over that period of time considering that it is one of the significant venues in Finsbury Park.”

He added: “This was a one-off event.”

A full review of the venue’s licence will now take place within 28 days.

Security at the venue were contacted by the Tribune but did not want to comment.