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# Café Carla loses licence over alcohol served to teenagers
- URL: https://www.ipswich.co.uk/cafe-carla-loses-licence-over-alcohol-served-to-teenagers/
- Published: 2026-04-14T14:26:44.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-14T14:26:44.000Z
- Description: Ipswich Borough Council's licensing committee has revoked the alcohol licence of Café Carla on Norwich Road, after councillors went further than police had requested — opting to strip the venue of its licence entirely rather than suspend it for three months.
- Author: Oliver Rouane-Williams
- Tags: News, Café Carla

**Why it matters:** The decision follows a Suffolk Police application to review the premises licence on the grounds of a failure to prevent crime and disorder, including an allegation that a 15-year-old girl was served alcohol at a children's party held in a back room of the café.

**The details:** The committee met on Monday, 13 April, to consider the police application. Suffolk Police had sought a three-month suspension of the licence, with alcohol sales restricted to between 07:00 and 22:00 daily once the premises reopened. Councillors, however, decided to revoke the licence altogether.

The force said it believed the café had been operating as a bar since last August, and outlined several instances of drunken behaviour between then and February.

Among the incidents cited, a 15-year-old told police she had been given a shot of alcohol by a man behind the bar while attending a party for young people in a back room of the premises. She said she was then handed a bottle of Jack Daniel's, which she shared with other attendees at the party.

**The bigger picture:** According to the police application, neither the premises supervisor nor the licence holder was running the café at the time. Instead, it said the venue was being managed by a man who was in the process of buying it, though no application for a new licence or for the transfer of the existing one had been received.

Companies House records show that the previous owner, Carla Maio, resigned as a person in significant control last August, with Portuguese national César Emanuel Lopes Pinheiro appointed in her place.

**For context:** The decision is the latest in a series of enforcement actions against Ipswich premises. In March, magistrates rejected a police closure order against Magazin Bacau Romanian Supermarket on the Buttermarket, despite a multi-agency investigation that led to the seizure of illicit alcohol, tobacco and prescription-only medication. Days later, The Orange Shop, a vape shop on Norwich Road, was fined more than £4,000 after magistrates heard it had sold vapes to underage customers on multiple occasions.

**The bottom line:** Councillors went beyond what police had asked for, revoking Café Carla's licence entirely — the strongest outcome available to the committee, and a signal that Ipswich's licensing system is prepared to act where enforcement actions have recently fallen short.