THE OWNER of a Turkish restaurant in Dundee, who tried to kill himself in his estranged wife’s Broughty Ferry garden when their marriage broke up, had his drinks licence suspended for a year yesterday.

Dundee City Council’s licensing board ruled that Serecettin Buyukbingol was not a fit and proper person in terms of the licensing act to hold a licence.

The proprietor of the Anatolia in Nethergate, Mr Buyukbingol had never been in trouble before with the police either in his home country of Turkey or since moving to Scotland in 1992, but his life “fell apart” and his business was left “in ruins” when his marriage broke up.

Police lodged an objection against him with the board and the force’s representative yesterday presented a letter to members detailing why they did not think him to be a suitable person to hold a licence.

Mr Buyukbingol’s wife had obtained a court interdict preventing him from visiting her home but this was breached and he found himself in court where he was granted bail subject to the condition that he did not go near his wife.

However, Mr Buyukbingol subsequently went to her home and asked to be allowed in. Police were called and found Mr Buyukbingol in the garden holding a knife and threatening to kill himself.

Officers told him they were there for his own good but drew batons and CS spray when he refused to hand over the knife.

As one officer attempted to get closer to Mr Buyukbingol to use the spray, the restaurateur grabbed the knife with both hands and stabbed himself in the stomach. An officer suffered a bad cut to his hand in the struggle.

Mr Buyukbingol sustained minor damage to his small intestine and once recovered was jailed for seven months at the sheriff court.

Mr Buyukbingol’s solicitor, Daniel Devine, said his client’s record as a licence holder had been perfect. He had gone to see his wife because she had not kept an arrangement to phone him.

He had not seen his children, aged 12 and 15, for 50 days. He was still running the restaurant and had just moved from a hotel into rented accommodation and had taken the knife for use at home.

Mr Devine claimed that Mr Buyukbingol fell on the knife after being sprayed with CS gas but this was later contradicted by police who said he stabbed himself before officers used the spray.

“It was a terrible reaction from someone who is a family man,” said Mr Devine. “Apart from two weeks a year, he’s the type of person who worked seven days a week for the past nine years and that probably had much to do with his marriage breaking down.”

Mr Devine argued that, having served a seven- month jail sentence, suspension would be another form of punishment. He had outstanding bills with creditors of £30,000 and wanted to pay them back.

He was also continuing to meet the terms of a lease that has seven years to run in the hope that he might be able to rebuild his business.

He asked for any suspension to be restricted to give Mr Buyukbingol a chance to continue with his restaurant.

Board chairman John Letford said he was sympathetic to Mr Buyukbingol’s situation but his reaction had been “severe”.

He added, “Restaurants are extremely important to the life of the city but our consideration is always for the public and I have some concerns about that.”

His motion that Mr Buyukbingol be suspended for a year was unanimously agreed by the board.