Blake Lapthorn solicitors' Licensing law team has compiled
a list of case studies for you. The click on the links below which
will take you to our list of case studies.
licensing review success in West London
Stephen Drake one
of our senior licensing solicitors was instructed by a family
owned convenience store operating on Fulham Broadway with a 24 hour
alcohol licence. The premises had earlier failed one single
test purchase by Trading Standards officers when the police
requested a review of the licence. No subsequent test
purchase failures took place though the police wanted the licence
hours to be cut back on the review so as not to operate between 12
midnight and 6am.
It was the police case that street drinking, drunkenness and
general anti-social behaviour were directly linked to the
premises. However, aside from general evidence relating to
the Fulham Broadway area a detailed cross-examination by Stephen at
the hearing failed to elicit any evidence relating directly to the
operation of the premises. A representation was also
made by the original Trading Standards officer who wanted staff
training, challenge 21 and refusal book conditions to be imposed on
the licence. These were all agreed prior to the review
hearing though the officer thought it was also a good idea if the
alcohol premises licence hours were cut back even though
the failed test purchase occurred early one evening at about
8pm! Stephen had advised the client on staff training, record
keeping and due diligence prior to the hearing.
At the hearing, and despite the total lack of evidence, the
licensing sub-committee not only cut back the licensing hours, but
to everyone's surprise (including the police!) suspended the
licence for a period of between one and three months.
Stephen duly lodged an appeal under the Licensing Act to
the Magistrates' Court which ensured that the premises could
continue to trade without a break.
Many months passed by when our licensing team leader, Phil
Crier, dealt with the appeal hearing at Court.
Despite the passage of time the police had gathered no evidence
relating to the premises. Indeed, in conversation prior to
the hearing the police were nothing short of complimentary about
the premises and the help they were given by its staff. On
fully allowing the appeal by reversing the licensing authority
decision, the Court also awarded our clients all of their costs
incurred in bringing the appeal as the original decision had been
so unreasonable.
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premises licence for petrol forecourt, the evidence of
use…..
Jon
Wallsgrove is one of the country's leading
experts in licensing law in securing premises
licences for petrol forecourts, advising on new
alcohol licences, variations and reviews for forecourts all over
the UK.
In a recent case, our client faced opposition from the police,
trading standards, local councillors and numerous residents. There
were the usual representations based on crime and disorder (for
example, an increase in drink driving clearly ignoring the fact that the
vast majority of people buying alcohol from other off licensed
premises will have driven there!). There were however, also
representations that the premises were used primarily as a garage
and therefore excluded from being granted an alcohol licence.
The issue on 'use' was all the more contentious because the shop
had been knocked down and was being re-built. The question was
therefore whether the committee could consider the predicted use of
the premises. The local authority sought counsel's opinion and
instructed a QC. The QC had advised that predicted use could not be
considered and that the application should be adjourned
for three months allowing the shop to open and then 'prove'
use. The local authority's licensing solicitor intended to provide
the written advice to the committee at the hearing.
Jon successfully argued that counsel's advice could not be given
weight as being a matter of legal opinion rather than legal
precedent, counsel not being present at the hearing, had not heard
all the arguments put forward and significantly the advice
contained comment on the quality of the evidence – a matter upon
which a local authority lawyer was not permitted to offer their
opinion.
Having accepted they could consider 'predicted' use, the
committee still needed to be convinced on the evidence it was not
primarily a garage and Jon's advice on what evidence should be
adduced ensured the committee were so satisfied and granted a new
alcohol premises licence.
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extending hours for films permission
Phil
Crier recently handled a number of
licensing applications from a national cinema operator, who has
been an existing client for a number of years, to extend the hours
for the showing of films in view of the fact that the average
length of films has increased from one hour 50 minutes
to two hours and 20 minutes in the last three years. Phil
submitted applications to vary the premises
licence for each cinema, to extend the hours for the
provision of regulated entertainment. In both Leamington and
Fareham, we successfully argued our case for later hours before the
licensing committees, despite objections from some local residents
and the police and the conditions approved were acceptable to our
clients.
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licensing review success in Westminster
Phil
Crier acted for a national pub operator in a
review of one of their premises licences in Westminster in January
2009. The review had been brought by the Environmental Health
Consultation team on public safety grounds due to complaints of
customers blocking the pavement immediately outside the premises.
They asked the committee to impose restrictive conditions on the
premises
licence which would severely curtail the numbers and times of
patrons being allowed to use the area outside. The committee had
powers under the Licensing Act 2003 to do this. It was
successfully argued before the committee that the conditions being
sought would be too onerous and unnecessary and the client was
delighted that the committee agreed with our arguments and the only
conditions imposed were those that we had proposed to environmental
health and were acceptable to the business.
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failed prosecution of personal licence holder for underage
sale
Philip
Somarakis from our Oxford office acted
for a personal licence holder who had been prosecuted
by the police for selling alcohol to two underage test purchasers.
The client had not actually made the sales, but described himself
during his police interview as being the "person in charge" that
day, despite the fact that he was not the designated premises
supervisor, nor did he hold the premises
licence.
There were a number of elements to our client's defence. One of
these related to the police issuing a fixed penalty to the 'wrong'
seller. The lady concerned didn’t actually make the sale. She had
assisted another member of staff who took the order, received
payment and handed back the change, but with whom the police took
no action at all. It would have been our contention that the fixed
penalty had been issued in error.
Also, the 'true' seller's argument would have been that she
honestly believed the test purchasers to be over 18, but this was
never considered, because she was never spoken to by the police. It
followed that if the true seller had been prosecuted, but was
successful in her defence, then it would be wrong for our client to
be prosecuted by default because of her actions. It also meant that
the police investigation had in part been compromised, because the
police were maintaining that the 'wrong' seller had not been
trained properly, thus undermining our client's due diligence
defence. In fact, the 'true' seller had been trained properly, had
the police correctly identified her and checked.
In any event, the defences did not get aired in the magistrates
court because the prosecution case fell at the first hurdle. The
police had failed to adduce any evidence that the test purchasers
were under 18. This is a necessary pre-condition before the offence
of selling alcohol to an underage person can be made out under the
Licensing Act 2003. This
evidence had been requested on a number of occasions and had never
been supplied. The case was therefore dismissed and our client was
granted a costs order in his favour.
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