Two Surrey men have been ordered to pay almost £30,000 to Kingston Council after running illegal poker tournaments in a gambling den at a Kingston pool bar.

Nicholas Clark and Luke Flack ran the unlicensed casino offering prizes of up to £50,000 six times a week at the Pool Bar Private Members Club in Cambridge Road.

Last Friday Kingston Crown Court heard how the pair ran the illegal card games for a year before police raided the bar in December 2014.

When officers stormed the bar they uncovered a “casino-style” member-only poker club that ran six days a week near the Cambridge Road estate.

Clark and Flack both admitted charges of concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property and entering into, using or controlling criminal property.

Prosecution counsel Paul Evans said: “The defendants’ attempts to portray the pool bar as a genuine private members’ club were a sham from the start.

“Instead, it was being run as a commercial enterprise for the financial benefit of individuals rather than as a club run by the members for the benefit of the members.

“Ignoring the strict regulations applying to casinos meant vulnerable people were not afforded the protections the law sought to provide.”

Jan Gransden, enforcement manager for the Kingston and Sutton environment service, said: “Kingston Council does not tolerate any form of illegal trading.

“Poker clubs like The Pool Bar Private Members Club will be found, closed down and their operators prosecuted. We will always take a hard line on any illegal trading and will push for strong penalties, the revoking of licenses and closing down of premises.

“We hope this prosecution sends a clear message to those in the community who choose to carry out illegal gambling, or any illegal trading, within Kingston.”

Judge Judith Coello ordered Clark, of Woodland Way, Kingswood, to pay £2,300 in fines and court costs and Flack, of Portsmouth Road, Cobham, to pay £1,000 in fines on top of £29,000 to Kingston Council.

The club managers, Jamie Kirkpatrick, 26, of Mill Road, Wimbledon, and David Thompson, 64, of Sandmills, Wallington, both admitted unauthorised use of a premises and controlling criminal property and received formal cautions.