Police have revealed the two men behind controversial plans for a 2,000-capacity town centre venue have criminal backgrounds.

A statement from Kingston police licensing officer Kevin Hyde said Malcolm Farquharson, who is one of the applicants behind a bid to transform the former Gala Bingo hall into Kingston Arena, was sentenced to six months in prison for mobile phone cloning in 1993.

The statement appeared in Kingston Council documents ahead of the licensing committee meeting on Friday, September 16, to consider the application in Richmond Road, but was later blacked out on the online version.

The police evidence also quoted a Gambling Commission report from December 7, 2010, stating co- applicant Matthew Deith had committed a criminal offence under the Gambling Act by breaching a condition attached to his personal management licence. He was not convicted, but under a voluntary settlement in January he was formally warned, but allowed to retain his personal management licence subject to conditions.

In an accompanying quote, which remains on the council documents, PC Hyde said: “The police do not accept the operators’ reputations are of a type that ought to lend weight to their application. In fact far from it.”

In a statement submitted to the council, Mr Farquharson said: “I was naive and got caught up in a mobile phone scam; it still causes me acute embarrassment, but I have paid my debt to society and have worked tirelessly to put that behind me and forge a good honest living for my family and me.”

The applicants had previously courted controversy when they submitted plans for a venue that would stop serving alcohol at 3am.

But, just days before the meeting, they modified the plans so the venue would stop serving alcohol at midnight instead.

In their evidence, the applicants denied they wanted to run a nightclub and their consultant said it would offer events similar to Strictly Come Dancing, children’s shows and comedy.

Bernadette Vallely, secretary of the Richmond Road Residents’ Association, said: “We share the police’s view. People at the residents’ meeting on Monday were deeply worried about the fitness of these people, and how they would set the tone for the venue.

“The whole plan is geared around music and drinking alcohol. To everyone else it is a clear as day that it is a nightclub.”

q Gala Bingo hall owner Franco Lumba, 43, was rearrested by police investigating allegations of money laundering connected to his club Essence in Bucklands Wharf, Kingston, on September 7.

He was released on bail to reappear in late November. He was originally arrested in June.