Unauthorised licensable activities

A person commits an offence if:

• he carries or allows to carry on a licensable activity on or from any premises without an authorisation,

Examples include:

• Not operating premises in accordance with the operating schedule;
• Allowing premises to operate outside conditions of the premises licence;
• Undertaking licensable activities not covered by an appropriate licence or other authorisation;
• Making alcohol sales outside the permitted hours on the premises licence; and
• Not employing door supervisors holding a licence issued by the SIA under the Private Security Act 2001, where this is a condition of the licence.

A person guilty of such an offence  is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to an unlimited fine, or to both.

Defence of due diligence

If a person is charged with the offence of carrying on an unauthorised licensable activity, their only defence is due diligence. The person making the defence is responsible for providing evidence that they have taken all reasonable steps to comply with the law. following can be used as due diligence;

• What happened was due to a mistake;
• They were relying on someone else; or
• What happened was out of their control

Producing appropriate documents such as training records, refusal books etc may support a due-diligence defence.