A Brentwood pub's licence is under review after police received a report that a man had part of his ear bitten off.

A criminal investigation was launched into the alleged incident at The Chequers pub, in Rayleigh Road, but has subsequently been dropped due to lack of evidence with CCTV footage not available due to either a "system failure" or "data being deleted".

However, Essex Police has asked for a review of the pub’s licence as this is not the first report of an assault on the premises.

In a report to Brentwood Council, the force said it had investigated a report that suggested a man who had been asked to leave the pub had lost part of his ear in an altercation.

The report said the alleged victim told Essex Police that on May 11 another man had approached him, grabbed his face and bitten his ear, with the ensuing struggle leading to a large piece of the ear being ripped off.

In another account that was told to investigating officers, a man who is alleged to have been harassing and touching women at the pub was asked to leave three times.

He refused and became aggressive before making a threat, allegedly using a headbutt. As he pulled his head back again his ear was bitten to stop him headbutting again.

However, Essex Police got no further in its investigation due to a lack of evidence because the CCTV from the pub was missing.

Officers reportedly had difficulty accessing the pub’s CCTV, and once they had got into the system they found the date stamp had been corrupted and that there were only recordings between March 5 and April 4.

The force said that given there was no recording of the day in question or a significant amount of time before the incident it could have been that the system failed on April 4 and stopped recording, or the footage had been deleted.

A statement as part of a submission from Essex Police said: “Whilst the criminal investigation has been closed, given the nature of the injury and the poor management of the premises, particularly in relation to the CCTV and how ejections are handled by the premises, the disorder element of the licensing objective and potentially the crime element have both been undermined.”

Essex Police said the incident on May 11 and another alleged assault by staff at the premises on November 25 last year showed “a pattern of concern”.

In an incident last year, it was alleged that a male member of staff had restrained a woman in the toilets by twisting her arm behind her back and forcing her against the wall. He then allegedly forcibly removed her from the pub while also pulling her hair.

Police also requested the pub’s CCTV for this incident but were told by a staff member that they had not kept the recording.

A police statement added: “Both of these incidents have involved allegations of violence by members of staff on members of the public with CCTV failing to be provided to police. Both show a pattern of concern and undermining of the licensing objectives.”