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Babergh District Council has welcomed the decision of Colchester Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (March 2) to order a Brantham pub landlord to pay a £1300 fine, £500 in costs and a victim surcharge of £15 after being found guilty of holding a two-day live music event in the pub car park, when the premises was not licensed to do so.
Michael Anthony O’Brien, the Designated Premises Supervisor of The Crown Public House, Cattawade Street, Brantham, pleaded guilty to the offence. On this occasion the Court decided not to revoke Mr O’Brien’s Personal Licence, which allows him to be in charge of licensed premises, but warned him that if he offends again, then they might do so.
Mr O’Brien held the event over the weekend of August 7-8 2010, with rock bands playing amplified music outdoors until 11.30pm on the Saturday and on the Sunday afternoon into the evening. The pub is surrounded by houses and complaints about the noise were made to Babergh’s Environmental Protection team. A band playing on the Sunday afternoon also used foul language, with the singer making obscene suggestions to the audience in the car park, which could be clearly heard by local residents over the speaker system.
Mr O’Brien was fully aware that the premises was not licensed for the performance of music outside and so had applied for a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) to cover the event. By law, applications for TENs must be made ten working days prior to the event to allow authorities time to make representations. However, Mr O’Brien’s application was received outside of this timeframe and so it was returned to him with explicit advice that he must not proceed as the event would not be licensed and he could face prosecution. Mr O’Brien ignored this advice. When interviewed Mr O’Brien stated that he knew he was committing an offence, but went ahead with the event because the bands wouldn’t fit in the pub and a lot of people were coming expecting to hear music.
Mr O’Brien had already received a written warning from the Council in September 2009 for breaching the pub’s licensed hours for the playing of recorded music indoors and that in April 2009 he had been warned about causing a nuisance to residents by playing music at excessive volume.
James Buckingham, Babergh’s Principal Environmental Protection Officer said: “We are pleased with the Court’s decision and the fine imposed. Mr O’Brien was warned that he did not have the necessary licence and that he would be breaking the law, but
went ahead with the event anyway for his own personal profit. He also appears to have given no thought to the distress he caused to local residents”.
“Unfortunately, many publicans seem to be unaware of, or chose to ignore their Premises Licence conditions. However, licence conditions are imposed for good reasons to protect the public and so Babergh treats all breaches seriously. In the last four months alone we have issued formal warnings to four premises for first offences and this conviction sends a clear message to others that if you do not comply with your licence, enforcement action will be taken”.
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