TWO nightclub owners have been ordered to pay more than £11,000 for subjecting residents to noise and nuisance.

Kevin Holbrook and William Brydon, owners of Club Karma in St Helen’s Lane, Colchester, were brought before magistrates by Colchester Council.

The council served the club owners with noise abatement orders after complaints by residents.

Jack Walsh, prosecuting for the council, said residents in East Stockwell Street described the noise as “unbearable”.

They claimed it caused severe headaches, disrupted their sleep, and left a buzzing in their ears which could last for hours after the music stopped.

Others said it affected their work and their quality of life, while one resident padded his windows with cardboard and slept with a bathroom fan on in an attempt to drown out the sound, Harwich Magistrates’ Court heard.

Mr Walsh said complaints began within days of Holbrook and Brydon taking over the nightclub in February, 2008.

Two noise abatement notices were served on May 23 last year, but council staff recorded seven incidents of failing to control noise and nuisance from the club and outdoor smoking area between May 31 and January.

Mr Walsh said: “Club Karma has made it difficult to be a resident in the Dutch Quarter.

“The tranquility has been shattered, and it has decreased the quality of life.

“There has plainly been anxiety and distress over a significant period of time.”

Marc Brown, mitigating, said the site had operated as a nightclub since 1956, and there had been tensions with residents for decades.

He said the club attracted no more than 50 people on Friday and Saturday nights, and the owners had taken out a £46,000 loan to keep it afloat.

Mr Brown said the owners had sacked two DJs and tried to control noise outside by only allowing six people out of the club at a time, but this had failed to work.

He added: “They are sorry for any distress they have caused the residents, but there have been complaints and difficulties as long as the club has been there.”

Holbrook, of Eastwood Drive, High Woods, Colchester, and Brydon, of Church Road, Elmstead Market, both denied charges of failing to comply with a noise abatement order at a previous hearing, but changed their pleas to guilty yesterday.

They were fined £3,000 each, and both ordered to pay £1,500 in legal costs and £400 as compensation to eight residents, as well as a £15 victim surcharge. The club was also fined £3,000 and ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge.