Case Studies - What happens when things go wrong?

Boys in Blue appear Out of the Blue

A nightclub owner was invited by the police to attend an interview as he had committed an offence under section 21 of the licensing act. He didn't know what offence he had committed so how did Licence999 help?

The letter from the police gave no information regarding the specific details of the offence and the nightclub owner could not recall any incidents that might have place his licence in jeopardy

Licence999 lawyer, Andy was able to suggest from past experience that this may have been linked to an offence under the Door Supervisors' Requirement in the Licensing Act.

This in itself triggered a recollection in the owner's mind that two years earlier the premises had had very stringent conditions imposed on it regarding the number of door supervisors per night.

Recently, following discussions with the Police, that particular condition had been relaxed and the premises subsequently applied for a formal variation of the licence to reflect the fewer number of door supervisors.

The Licensing Officer had apparently visited the premises on the previous Friday night, counted the number of door supervisors and decided that they did not comply with the number required under the licence conditions. However, he was looking at the old licence, not the new!

The Licensing Officer didn't bother to speak to the operators on the Friday night to discuss this, or indeed to telephone them. Instead he triggered a standard letter alleging an offence under the Licensing Act requiring a police interview.

This was one of those situations where Licence999 were able to help very quickly by identifying the issue - the client subsequently telephoned the police and the matter has been resolved.

The moral of the story? Sometimes enforcement officials don't speak to each other, so don't get caught in the middle.