A kebab shop where a member of staff knifed a customer will continue to stay open into the early hours.

The owners of Eastern Delight, Barking Road, Plaistow, successfully applied for a new late night refreshment licence at Newham Town Hall on Friday – despite a former employee landing a jail term for committing grievous bodily harm on a customer.

Asan Enver, 29, was jailed for eight years and eight months on October 30.

A statment to the council last week from Pc Sanj Padda said: “The venue was clearly beyond their licensed trading hours and having closing hours of 5am would cause concerns.”

The licence had expired in 2011, meaning the kebab shop was not legally allowed to sell refreshments or hot food after 11pm – something that only came to light after the stabbing.

Brothers Ali and Muhammet Delidogan, who have run the premises for 15 years, agreed to reduce their desired opening hours from 5am to 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, and until 2am for the rest of the week.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” said Ali.

“We have our licence back thanks to our adviser, we achieved what we wanted.

Speaking on their behalf, consultant Graham Hopkins said the stabbing was carried out by a casual worker on his first shift.

“My clients had nothing to do with it, they never had any issues [before this] in 15 years of trading.”