Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Broughton.

Members are asked to disclose any interests in matters for consideration at the meeting.

None disclosed.

                                                                                                            (Enclosure)

The minutes of the meeting held on 8th November were agreed as a correct record of the decisions taken.

In accordance with Section 100A of the Local government Act 1972, it was resolved that the public be excluded because of the likelihood in view of the nature of the business to be transacted that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Report CSL044 by the Community Safety and Licensing Service Manager.

(Enclosure)

Decision:

That the Committee reject the application for a personal licence as it considers that the appropriate promotion of the Licensing objective for the crime prevention would be undermined.

The Solicitor to the Committee introduced those present and confirmed who was to speak in connection with the application.  The applicant represented himself and Sergeant John Mellor and PC Figgit for Lincolnshire Police. The solicitor also explained that he had given legal advice to the committee about the relevance of previous convictions and which convictions relating to the applicant were either not relevant or “spent” for the purpose of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

The Licensing Officer presented her report which concerned an application for a personal licence, the applicant had one unspent conviction for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Under Section 120 of the Licensing Act, the authority must grant a licence unless the applicant had been convicted of any relevant offence or any relevant foreign offence in which case they must hold a hearing to consider the matter.  The authority notified the Chief of Police of the relevant offence and if he was satisfied that the granting of the licence would undermine the crime prevention objective he had 14 days in which to give the authority a notice of objection.  An objection notice was received by Lincolnshire Police on 16 December 2013.

Sergeant Mellor for Lincolnshire Police then made representations as to why they believed the application for a personal licence should not be granted to the applicant.

(10.15am Councillor Howard left the meeting)

They referred to the severity of the conviction and the sentencing that the applicant had received. They detailed the circumstances of the incident for Members information, although without any of the other witness statements to the incident.  In their view the applicant was not a fit and proper person to hold a personal licence especially as the conviction was not yet spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

The applicant then gave his representation and admitted that he had been in the wrong and in hindsight should not have acted how he had due to the repercussions that the  incident had upon, not just  him but also on his family.  He referred to mitigating circumstances as to why he had acted as he had but agreed that he had handled the incident badly. In mitigation he said that he had punched another man who approached him and he had done so in part because he was concerned for his safety and the safety of his 10 month old child that was travelling with him in the same car. He was entirely sorry for his previous conduct and understood the police’s concerns.

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Questions were then put to the applicant from the Licensing Officer and Members to which the applicant replied.  The applicant was asked if had received any counselling since the incident or whether he had any character references to present to the Committee which he hadn’t.

The Licensing Officer then gave  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

The meeting closed at 11.07am.