Published: 4 October, 2013

THREE cinemas face being shut down after Town Hall inspectors who were propositioned for sex found numerous licence breaches.

Kenneth Champkin, who runs Abcat Cinema in Caledonian Road, was ordered to pay £1,094 in fines and costs at Highbury Magistrates’ Court last month after pleading guilty to licence breaches.

George Papworth, who runs Oscars Cinema in Northdown Street, King’s Cross, was similarly ordered to pay £742.

Fantasy Video, in City Road, is due in court on Tuesday.

All three cinemas will now have their licences reviewed by licensing chiefs in November.

If they lose their licences it will be one of the final steps in the transformation of King’s Cross, an area which just 15 years ago was a byword for vice and drugs.

Islington crime chief Councillor Paul Convery, who is ward councillor for the area, described the cinemas as “sleazy” and said the reports that will go before licensing chiefs next month made for “unpleasant” reading.

“We’re not being prudish,” he said. “We’re reflecting public opinion and dealing with all sorts of sex establishments.

The reports give graphic detail about what happened to inspectors when they visited, including being propositioned for sex, touched up and witnessing sex acts taking place.”

These included five men touching themselves and each other at the Abcat Cinema. At the Fantasy Cinema, the undercover inspector was touched on the thigh.

At Oscars, the inspector witnessed men “kissing and fondling each other”, and was illegally sold a porn DVD.

“There is something quite sleazy about them,” Cllr Convery said.

“People go in furtively. King’s Cross used to be a place you drive through, and was well known for vice. That is no longer the case.”