Brighton Pub Owner Urges Councillors To Relax Licence Restrictions

A Brighton pub’s bosses criticised a licence condition that requires door staff to scan customers’ identity (ID) documents after 10pm if they appear to be under 30 years old.

The condition was added to the premises licence for Molly Malone’s, in West Street, Brighton, at a court hearing last year.

The pub’s owner, Indigo Leisure, had appealed to Brighton Magistrates’ Court after the licence was revoked following a stabbing the year before.

But today (Thursday 31 August) Indigo director Christopher Bloomfield told councillors that none of the business’s 17 other venues in the centre of Brighton and Hove had an ID scanner.

Operations director Thelma Hayes said that the scanners were “not bulletproof” as she found during a training session.

She said:

“I handed a few IDs to the training specialist. Among those were fakes. When scanned, one of the fakes came up as a pass. I explained it was a fake and the scanner had passed it.

“He shrugged his shoulders and said the machines ‘don’t detect all fakes’. I was dumbfounded when I heard this. The whole point of the scanner is to detect fake IDs.”

Sarah Clover, for Indigo, said that scanning ID documents would not have prevented the stabbing in July 2021.

The barrister said that a “rogue doorman” took a bribe to allow a 16-year-old into the pub who later stabbed a man in the leg as the man tried to stop a fight.

Inspector Mark Redbourn, from Sussex Police, said that all the main venues in central Brighton used ID scanners including Pryzm, Revolution and Walkabout in West Street.

The Brighton and Hove licensing inspector said:

“It is really important to understand people do not expect to go to West Street without being scanned into premises.

“One of the primary objectives is to try to identify the people who aren’t of the correct age.”

Inspector Redbourn added that he believed that scanners did deter crime, based on his experience policing central Brighton and West Street for the past 20 years.

The exchanges took place before a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel which was asked to decide whether three of the extra conditions were necessary and proportionate.

Molly Malone’s also wants to ditch a condition requiring the venue to host live music after midnight and another requiring the pub to refuse entry after 2.30pm.

Miss Clover said that the condition requiring live music seven days a week was like asking a pizza restaurant to serve pizza.

She said that Miss Clover said that Molly Malone’s already operated as a grassroots music venue and did not need a licence condition requiring live performances after midnight linked to alcohol sales.

Miss Clover told the panel – consisting of councillors Ivan Lyons, Paul Nann and Alison Thomson – that Ms Hayes was having to call in favours at the last minute when performers failed to turn up.

Paul Nann Labour Wish 2023, Alison Thomson Labour Regency 2023, Ivan Lyons Conservative Westdene

Council licensing manager Jim Whitelegg said that, even without the licence condition, the venue would still have the same problem if musicians pulled out.

But Ms Clover said:

“They would not be in breach of the condition when they’re selling alcohol and a live music act doesn’t happen to turn up.

“They wouldn’t be committing a criminal offence. It would become an administrative headache, not a criminal offence, and that’s quite a big difference.”

The pub’s licence permits entertainment and the sale of drink until 4am, with the venue closing at 5am.

But the other condition contested by Indigo was the one requiring the venue to refuse entry to people after 2.30am.

Miss Clover said that the last entry time meant that many previously regular customers who worked in the hospitality sector in the central Brighton area missed out on relaxing after work.

The panel was told that staff from other venues could often be seen running up West Street, aiming to reach the pub before the 2.30am cut-off.

She also cited two incidents where people had briefly left the pub but were not allowed back inside, even though their friends, coats and bags were in the pub.

The council licensing panel retired to make its decision which should be made public within five working days.