Agenda item

The Director of Neighbourhoods and Environmental Services submits a report.

The Director of Neighbourhoods and Environmental Services submitted a report that required Members to determine an application for the review of an existing Personal Licence.

The Personal Licence Holder (PLH) was not present. The Licensing Team Manager, Licensing Enforcement Officer, and Legal Adviser to the Sub-Committee were present.

It was noted the PLH had indicated by email that he would not be putting a case forward and that he had left the bar industry. Members agreed that the meeting should proceed in the PLH’s absence.

The Licensing Team Manager outlined details of the application including the relevant City Council Policy Guidelines. Questions from the Sub-Committee Members were answered.

The Sub-Committee received legal advice from the Legal Adviser to the Sub-Committee in the presence of all those present.

In reaching their decision, Members felt they should deliberate in private on the basis that this was in the public interest, and as such outweighed the public interest of their deliberation taking place with the parties represented present.

The Chair announced that the decision and the reasons made during private session would be publicly announced within five working days. The Chair informed the meeting that the Legal Adviser to the Sub-Committee would be called back to give advice on the wording of the decision.

The Chair then asked all but Members of the Sub-Committee and Democratic Support Officers to disconnect from the meeting. The Sub-Committee then deliberated in private in order to consider their decision.

The Sub-Committee recalled the Legal Adviser to the Sub-Committee to give advice on the wording of the decision.

RESOLVED:

That the Personal Licence be REVOKED.

Members of the Sub-Committee had listened carefully to all the representations and had taken account of the Statutory Guidance, the Regulators’ Code and the Council’s Licensing Policy.

Members were informed that in January 2017, the Council had issued a Personal Licence. Subsequent to the grant, the PLH was convicted on 31 January 2020 at Leicester Crown Court of an offence of affray contrary to section 3 of the Public Order Act 1986. The brief circumstances of that offending were that on 28 September 2018, the PLH was involved in a large-scale fight between two groups of males on Belvoir Street, Leicester. The PLH assaulted another male during the disturbance. By way of sentence, the PLH was made subject to a 12-month Community Order with a requirement to undertake 120 hours unpaid work.

The conviction was a relevant offence as listed in Schedule 4 of the Licensing Act 2003. The conviction was not spent for the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore gave ground for suspension or revocation of the licence holder’s Personal Licence in accordance with section 132A(3) of the Licensing Act 2003.

The PLH did not appear before the Committee and made no representations. He had previously indicated that he would not be putting a case forward and that he had left the bar industry.

The PLH’s offending clearly demonstrated his unsuitability to hold a Personal Licence. A Personal Licence authorised an individual to supply alcohol, or authorise the supply of alcohol, in accordance with a Premises Licence. The Council’s Licensing Policy detailed “The Licensing Authority recognises the important role that personal licence holders have to play in the promotion of the licensing objectives at premises selling alcohol. For this reason, personal licence holders are required to have prescribed training and not have relevant convictions that would indicate their unsuitability”.

The Sub-Committee’s decision, made under section 132A(8) of the Licensing Act 2003, was that to promote the licensing objectives, it was appropriate to revoke the Personal Licence.

The licence holder would be informed he had 21 days to appeal the decision to the Magistrate’s Court should he wish to do so.