The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127659 Message #2935149
Posted By: GUEST,The Shambles
26-Jun-10 - 12:16 PM
Thread Name: Entertainment & Alcohol Licence ? UK
Subject: RE: Entertainment & Alcohol Licence ? UK
Picking and choosing which laws you will obey is the road to anarchy.
If that is true then it is equally the case, where those who are employed to enforce legislation think they have the right to and are permitted, to pick and choose the laws they will obey and those they will ignore.
And in case where this is employees of local council, the damage is most often done by their advised interpretations (not agreed local policy) and which never reach any form of court and would not be supported if they did.
In my experience, the licensing section sent a letter to the licensee which threatened them with prosecution and a possible £20,000 fine and / or 6 months imprisonment if they did not obtain the licence or did not stop the session. This approch was described by the employees to the elected members as 'encouragement'.
Such penalties as these may be thought to be OTT but they still remain. Without them, there may be more people who would be prepared to test the case in our courts.