One of Manchester's most popular chicken shops has been 'operating illegally for 18 months'

A chicken shop in one of Manchester’s hippest neighbourhoods has been ‘operating illegally for 18 months’, it’s been revealed.

Bird of Prey, located on Charles Street in the Circle Square apartment and business complex in the city centre, admitted breaching its licence conditions from opening in 2022 until March of this year at a hearing on Monday (May 13). The takeaway, which is known for serving super-spicy ‘insanity wings’, was given permission to open until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays by the council when it opened.

However, owner Sadaf Bukhari admitted at the hearing the shop had opened ‘until 3am for 18 months’. The licence breach was only discovered on March 11 of this year when police were called to remove a ‘gentleman’ who ‘was refusing’ to leave the premises, PC Alan Isherwood told the hearing.

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Cops found that management had not displayed its licence publicly in the shop, and staff could not operate the CCTV system, as required. When challenged about this, Ms Bukhari admitted that she ‘lied’ to the police officer at the scene.

“That was childish,” she said in the Town Hall meeting. “I did not want to be exposed for the problem. On reflection I feel very, very silly for what I did but unfortunately I cannot undo what has been done.”

During the hearing, Ms Bukhari was asked why she did not adhere to the licence conditions — to which she replied that she ‘opened the email but not the attachments’ that contained her licence information.

“I failed in my responsibility on that,” she said. In mitigation of her ‘errors’, she added: “In June 2022 I was made redundant from a job in consulting. I