A NIGHTCLUB owner has been ordered to close for three-months - and when it reopens time will be called much earlier.

Swindon magistrates have beefed up action to control trouble at Angelo's.

Last year the club's licence was reviewed by councillors who ruled that it should close for two months because of a catalogue of problems flagged up by police.

Owner Angelo Rossi appealed against that decision and the case was reviewed yesterday.

But the magistrates came down even harder on the club.

They extended the closure to three months and said that the club must have a full-time CCTV supervisor during opening hours.

Mr Rossi was also ordered to pay £24,609 in court costs to Swindon Council.

And magistrates backed up Swindon Council's ruling that when it reopens it will have to close at 2am.

Eileen Charles, chairwoman of the bench, said that the court considered quashing Angelo's licence for good.

But they decided that stricter conditions were more appropriate.

"The management has failed to effectively control and supervise the club over a substantial period of time," she said.

"It changed practices only long enough to briefly avoid police attention and to pay lip service only to suggestions made by police.

"The club needs to change the way it operates."

Inspector Karen Priest, whose area covers Swindon town centre, said the case "drew a line in the sand".

"This sets a clear standard," she said. "And if venues fall below that standard we will offer them support and help.

"But if they continue below that standard we will seek to review their licence.

"Angelo's was completely reliant on other people leaving other venues intoxicated, or being on their way to being intoxicated.

"If you then send them to another place where they can continue to drink then this will lead to further incidents of violent disorder.

"Today's decision will drastically reduce the number of violent and drunken disorder offences in the town centre after 3am.

"It also means that we can start to police the whole of the town rather than a single premises and we can start to look at long term problems with other licences."

Angelo's originally had its 24-hour drinking licence reviewed by councillors last year after police surveillance turned up 31 incidents of disruptive behaviour by Angelo's customers between July and August 2007.

However, Mr Rossi appealed against the ruling saying the decision was unfair. During an earlier hearing Mr Rossi said: "If you take away my late licence the club is useless.

"You might as well blow it up."