Big fines for The Steyne
The Steyne hotel in Manly has been hit with an increase of $11,000 in licensing fees annually for the next three years after police found four minors had been served alcohol on the premises.
Police caught four 17-year-old girls drinking at The Steyne last year.
However, a magistrate decided to not record a conviction against its then licensee, Stephen O'Sullivan.
Instead, he was given a good behaviour bond.
As a result, no "strike" was recorded against the hotel under the state’s “three strikes law” which sees pubs losing their licences if they incur three strikes for serious offences under the Liquor Act.
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions successfully appealed the decision on Monday.
The result: an automatic first “strike” has been imposed on the venue and the pub has to pay a "compliance risk loading" of $3000 a year and a "patron capacity loading" of $8000 a year during the three years the strike is in place.
In addition to that, The Steyne was hit with $5700 in fines for allowing minors on the premises and permitting them to be sold or supplied with alcohol.
Pub owner Arthur Laundy is devastated by the ruling.
“I'm so shattered, I'm so disappointed. You try hard and one blemish in eight years and this is the result," Mr Laundy told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Mr Laundy told the paper he had never condoned underage drinking. He also said The Steyne had been “cleaned up” after it was acquired in 2010.
The financial penalties come on top of the one week closure of The Steyne ordered by Liquor & Gaming NSW (L&GNSW).
John Green, director of liquor and policing for AHA NSW, defended Mr Laundy and the other owners of The Steyne, saying they had cleaned it up and turned it into a family friendly venue that had received praise from the police and the community.
He also said the penalties were excessive.
“To close one of Sydney’s most recognised and well-run hotels for a full week in July following a first offence was over the top,’’ Mr Green told The Shout. “Now, five months later, the hotel has been handed an additional and more serious sanction in the form of a strike – for the same first offence. The severity of the penalty is grossly unfair for the offence committed.”
by Leon Gettler, December 7th 2016
