Pitcaithly v Rugby Hotel Limited [2007] NZLLA 857 (7 September 2007)

New Zealand Liquor Licensing Authority

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Pitcaithly v Rugby Hotel Limited [2007] NZLLA 857 (7 September 2007)

Last Updated: 3 February 2010

Decision No.857/2007

IN THE MATTER of the Sale of Liquor Act 1989

AND

IN THE MATTER of an application pursuant to s.132 of the Act for suspension of on-licence number 069/ON/34/2005 issued to RUGBY HOTEL LIMITED in respect of premises situated at 19 Carroll Street, Dunedin, known as "Rugby Hotel"

BETWEEN WAYNE DAVID PITCAITHLY

(Police Officer of Dunedin)

Applicant

AND RUGBY HOTEL LIMITED

Respondent

BEFORE THE LIQUOR LICENSING AUTHORITY

Chairman: District Court Judge E W Unwin
Members: Dr J Horn
Mr P M McHaffie
Ms J D Moorhead

DECISION

We have before us an application by Sergeant W D Pitcaithly of Dunedin Police for suspension of an on-licence held by Rugby Hotel Limited in respect of premises situated at 19 Carroll Street, Dunedin, known as “Rugby Hotel”.

The ground for the application is that the premises have been conducted in breach of the provisions of s.164 of the Act, which creates an offence for any licensee or manager to allow any person under 18 years of age to enter or remain in any designated area in licensed premises. The respondents premises are designated as supervised in their entirety.

More particularly it is alleged that at approximately 12.30 am on 1 April 2007 a 16 year old male was located in the premises by Police while they were present for an unrelated issue. As a consequence, the Police conducted a further check of the premises over the next 30 minutes, and located four more underage persons namely, two aged 15 years, one aged 16 years and one aged 17 years.

The duty manager, who had been appointed in a temporary capacity and did not hold a manager’s certificate, acknowledged that he should have checked for verification of age. He was the only staff member present and no monitoring of persons entering the premises had been conducted since 10.30 the previous evening.

The manager has separately been dealt with by way of prosecution, convicted and fined.

The licensee does not dispute the ground for the application and accepts that suspension of the on-licence is appropriate.

Following discussion with Sergeant Pitcaithly the licensee was invited to consider imposition of a period of suspension by the Authority, by consent, as an alternative to appearing at a public hearing. That course of action has been accepted.

Accordingly, having considered the recommendation from the applicant we make the following order:

On-licence number 069/ON/34/2005, issued to Rugby Hotel Limited, is suspended for 24 hours from 11.00 am on Saturday 6 October 2007.

DATED at WELLINGTON this 7th day of September 2007

______________________
B M Holmes
Deputy Secretary

Rugby Hotel.doc(ab)