Agenda and minutes

That Councillor Maxine Henson be appointed Chair of the Licensing Panel Hearing.

[Note:  Licensing Panel minutes are:-

(1)          approved following each meeting by the Members serving on that particular occasion and signed as a correct record by the Chair for that meeting;

(2)          not submitted to the next panel meeting for approval.

Reasons: The Licensing Panel is constituted from a pooled membership. Consequently, a subsequent Panel meeting is likely to comprise a different Chair and Members who took no part in the previous meeting’s proceedings. The process referred to at (1) above provides appropriate approval scrutiny].

The Chair asked the Panel Members, officer/s, Responsible Authority/ies and other attendees at the meeting to introduce themselves and then outlined the procedure for the conduct of an oral hearing.

Report of the Corporate Director of Community.

In attendance:

The Panel carefully considered all the relevant information including:

·                     written and oral representations by all the parties

·                     the Licensing Act 2003 and the steps that are appropriate to promote the licensing objectives

·                     the Guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003

·                     Harrow Council’s Licensing Policy

·                     Human Rights Act 1998.

Members of the Panel also took into consideration the following, full details of which were set out in the Decision Notice sent to all interested parties:

-               the police had observed that the licensee had not upheld one or more of the four licensing objectives and had breached the licence conditions, including the keeping of smuggled goods.  For example, during a visit on 8 March 2019,  the CCTV could not be operated, the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) failed to produce a  personal licence when requested to do so by the police and there were no proper records of ‘refusal’ logs; 

-               the Licensing Authority and the police had made various attempts to work with the licence holder.  Condition 8 of the licence had required two members of the staff to be employed at the store.  This requirement had been explained to the licence holder and she had been advised that, if she found it difficult to comply with this condition, she should seek to have the condition removed.  However, the condition had remained on the licence and had been breached continuously;

-               despite being advised of the identities of the street drinkers to whom alcohol should not be sold, the licence holder had continued to sell to those customers;

-               non-payment of duty on alcohol and tobacco on a number of occasions and the seizure of these goods by the HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs), including the failure to provide evidence of purchase;

-               no credible evidence or explanation had been provided by the licence holder in relation to the repeat breaches of the licence or the offence of holding smuggled goods;

-               no offer by the licence holder of any means of remedying the breaches or ensuring that the licensing objectives would be upheld in the future.  No responsibility was accepted for the repeat breaches.  The licence holder did not offer to undertake training to ensure the upholding of the licensing objectives in the future;

-               although the licence holder had requested an opportunity to improve and she had asked that she be given another chance to improve as this was her only business and she had four children, the Panel had been of the view that the licence holder had been given various opportunities since 2013 to improve but had continued to routinely breach the conditions on the licence and undermine the licensing objectives;

-               consideration of the Guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003which stated that certain criminal activity, such  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.