Cops have accused an Archway massage centre of running as a brothel.

At a town hall meeting yesterday afternoon, police were trying to stop Golden Health, in Junction Road, from being able to renew its special treatment licence to provide body massages.

But the blundering officers failed – because they didn’t provide enough information to Islington Council’s licensing regulatory committee. A decision was delayed and Pc Petros Loizou was told: “Material seemed to be missing from the report.”

Golden Health describes itself as a “Chinese medicine centre”. Yong Mei Wang, director of the business since 2014, strongly denied the accusation.

Her solicitor, Anthony Owen, told councillors: “She closes at 9pm. That’s not consistent with someone who runs a brothel, as the police suspects. It’s absolutely not the case. No way. I had to explain what [the word] means. It just doesn’t happen.

“What she has taken on board is she needs to be more rigorous with her paperwork. She wants this business to succeed – it’s her livelihood. The staff are clear: no sexual services are offered. As long as that’s understood by workers, she is doing all she can to make sure it’s a proper environment.”

A complaint was first raised about the shop in December last year. Mr Owen appeared to take a swipe at the authorities when he said: “A meeting with her could have helped – it’s nearly a year since the concerns were raised.”

In licensing papers issued before the meeting, Islington Police said: “In July the Islington Police licensing team received notification from Pc David Thomas that the venue was being used as a massage parlour and the venue has different workers at each visit.

“We do not believe the venue is being run as a massage and acupuncture venue as licensed and believe the application should be refused.”

Under the Local Government Act 1972, the Gazette was excluded from hearing confidential reports from Pc Loizou.

But whatever he said clearly wasn’t satisfactory, as a decision was deferred until December 13.

A council legal advisor told him: “You need to make representations in a fresh report. The information here has not been sufficient for the committee to consider. Material seemed to be missing from the report. You really need more information for the licensee to respond to.”