Agenda, decisions and minutes

Licensing Act 2003 Sub-Committee - Thursday 11th December, 2014 1.30 pm

Venue: Council Chamber - Town Hall

Contact: Philippa Turvey; Senior Governance Officer

Items

No.

Item

Apologies for Absence

Declarations of Interest

At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council.

Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

Application for Premises Licence Review - 653 Lincoln Road, Peterborough PDF 113 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

DECISION NOTICE - LICENSING ACT 2003 SUB-COMMITTEE

SUMMARY REVIEW OF THE PREMISES LICENCE – 653 LINCOLN ROAD, PETERBOROUGH

11 DECEMBER 2014

This Decision Notice refers to the summary review of the premises licence 653 Lincoln Road, Peterborough.

The review was applied for by Trading Standards, following convictions on 15 October 2014 for a number of offices relating to the sale of smuggled tobacco products, under the prevention of crime and disorder objective.

Trading Standards recommended the revocation of the licence or, failing revocation, additional conditions. Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Public Health, as Responsible Authorities, supported the review. Trading Standards, Cambridgeshire Constabulary and the Licence Holder made submissions to the Sub-Committee.

The Sub-Committee considered:

· The Government Guidance and the Council’s own statement of Licensing Policy which reflected the Government Guidance;

· Representations in writing and those made to the Sub-Committee at the hearing from all parties;

· The letter from the licence holder dated October;

· The newspaper reports kindly submitted by the licence holder’s representative; and

· The proposed conditions as an alternative to revocation.

The licence holder’s representative informed the Sub-Committee that Mr Jaferi was out of the country from 11 March so was not able to monitor what was happening in the shop during his absence, and that it was the responsibility of the designated premises supervisor. However, Mr Jaferi was in the country on the 5 March.

The tobacco products were being sold by a member of staff without his knowledge.

The Sub-Committee disregarded the previous issues of the out of date food prosecution and failed test purchase, given the time that had elapsed.

The options available to the Sub-Committee were:

(a) to modify the conditions of the premises licence;

(b) to exclude a licensable activity from the scope of the licence;

(d) to suspend the licence for a period not exceeding three months, or

(e) to revoke the licence.

It was the Sub-Committee’s decision to exclude from the licence, the licensable activity of the retail sale of alcohol as the Sub-Committee did not believe that any conditions would prevent further sales of such products.

Any party in objection to the decision may appeal to the Peterborough Magistrates Court within 21 days of receiving this formal notice at:

Peterborough Court House, Bridge Street, Peterborough, PE1 1ED. Tel No. 0845 3100575.

Councillor Thacker MBE

Committee Chairman

Minutes:

1. Apologies for Absence	There were no apologies for absence received.
2. Declarations of Interest	There were no declarations of interest.
3.11 3. Application	Review of Premises Licenses, 653 Lincoln Road
3.11 3.1 Application Reference	070306
3.11 3.2 Sub-Committee Members	Councillor Thacker (Chairman) Councillor Hiller Councillor Saltmarsh
3.11 3.3 Officers	Terri Martin, Regulatory Officer – Licensing Colin Miles, Lawyer – Legal Advisor to the Sub-Committee Pippa Turvey, Senior Democratic Services Officer – Sub-Committee Clerk
3.11 3.4 Applicant	Trading Standards
3.11 3.5 Nature of Application	Application Type Review of Premises Licence Summary of Application To consider and determine an application for the review of a Premises Licence under Section 51 of the Licensing Act 2003 for 653 Lincoln Road, taking into account the representation made by Trading Standards in their capacity as a Responsible Authority and the representations in support of the review by Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Public Health, also Responsible Authorities. The review was brought under the Prevention of Crime and Disorder and Public Safety objectives. A summary of the issues raised within the representations included: Illicit tobacco and cigarettes found hidden in the premises and van. The premises licence holder has pled guilty to 5 offences in relation to illicit tobacco products at Peterborough Magistrates Court on 15 October 2014. Section 11.28 of Guidance (issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003) recommends that revocation of the licence even in the first instance, should be seriously considered where reviews arise and the licensing authority determines, that the crime prevention objective is being undermined through the premises being used to further crimes. Impact on Public Safety as the illicit cigarettes breach EU Standards which is an offence under UK regulations requiring traders to supply safe goods. The distribution and sale of illicit goods is linked to serious and organised crime.
3.11 3.6 Licensing Objective(s) under which representations were made	Prevention of Crime and Disorder
3.7 Parties/Representatives and Witnesses present 3.11	Responsible Authorities Karen Woods, Trading Standards PC Grahame Robinson, Cambridgeshire Constabulary Licence Holder and Representative Mr Ghulam Jaferi, Licence Holder Mr Jamal Khalil, Licence Holder Representative
3.8 Written Representations	Responsible Authorities Consideration was given to the written representation from Public Health, attached to the report at Appendix D.
3.9 Facts/Issues in Dispute	Issue 1 Whether the update of the premises license conditions would further support the ‘Prevention of Crime and Disorder’ Licensing Objective.
3.10 Oral Representations	The Regulator Officer addressed the Sub-Committee and outlined the main points with regards to the application. The key points raised in the address included the administrative error raised in paragraph 2.2 and 2.3 of the report, in relation to a minor variation of conditions the licensing objection of ‘Prevention of Crime and Disorder’. Responsible Authority – Trading Standards Karen Woods, Trading Standards, addressed the Sub-Committee. The key points raised during her address, and following questions from the Sub-Committee were as follows: The application for review had resulted from the seizure of illicit tobacco. The tobacco had been discovered by a search dog in ... view the full minutes text for item 3.