Over 200 people in Moray who currently hold personal licenses permitting them to sell alcohol are being warned that they face losing their rights.
Moray Council sent out letters last week to 209 license holders in the region informing them that their licenses would be revoked by the Licensing Board, with their details passed on to Police Scotland.
The move follows a warning issued in June this year that personal license holders in Moray faced such action if they failed to complete a legal requirement to attend “refresher training”.
Of the 596 license holders in Moray just 198 had applied by June to attend the training – which had to be completed by the end of November.
Now Councillor Ron Shepherd, the convener of the Moray Licensing Board, has revealed that 209 personal license holders who had first received their licenses on September 1, 2009 and so were due for the refresher course had not done so.
Under Scottish Government regulations for selling alcohol on licensed premises, the sale must be authorised generally or specifically by a personal licence holder. The designated premises manager must possess a personal licence.
In many premises, other members of staff also attain personal licences so that they can also authorise sales. If personal licence holders do not refresh their training within the specified period, the Licensing Board will revoke their personal licence.
For premises managers, the consequences of the revocation of a personal licence could include the sale of alcohol no longer being permitted in their premises, unless appropriate steps are taken to name an alternative personal licence holder as the designated premises manager.
In addition, personal licence holders who have their licences revoked will no longer be allowed to authorise sales of alcohol or conduct the mandatory staff training and will be unable to obtain another personal licence for a period of 5 years.
Councillor Shepherd said: “We have said to license holders during this year that failure to inform the board means you will lose your personal license.
“But it seems more than 200 holders do not seem to be concerned about that. We have to revoke the license and the holder cannot re-apply for five years.”
Premises license holders will have just seven days from the date of revocation of a managers’ personal license to notify the board that they have lost their premises manager – and then have six weeks to appoint a legally licensed replacement.
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