Landlords lose licences over illegal TV football.

Byline: KATIE DICKINSON Reporter [email protected]

TWO pub landlords have lost their personal licences for illegally showing Premier League football matches in a Newcastle West End boozer 'throughout the 2018/19 season'.

Santokh Singh Chahal and John Hart were both hit with fines after being found guilty of screening Sky Sports at The Chesterfield pub without the correct licence.

Newcastle Magistrates Court heard investigators found matches being shown on at the Elswick Road pub on 12 occasions - six of which were Newcastle United matches - between August 2018 and May 2019. The pair did not attend but were found guilty of 10 counts each of dishonestly receiving a programme with intent to avoid payment in their absence.

The court heard that an investigation started into the Elswick pub in August last year. Richard Padley, prosecuting the case on behalf of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), said Chahal was the registered premises licence holder and supervisor, while Hart originally started as an employee before becoming the designated premises supervisor.

He said: "In order to show Sky in a commercial premises it's necessary to subscribe through Sky through a commercial agreement, which is different to a domestic agreement. In this case no financial agreement was in place."

The court heard an investigator went to The Chesterfield last August and saw that Cardiff City vs Newcastle United was being shown to about 15 customers.

Mr Padley said a warning letter was sent to Chahal, but on August 15 an investigator attended again and saw Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool was on.

On several occasions when investigators went to talk to Chahal, Hart said he wasn't there and a note was left asking him to get in contact.

The court heard on a visit on November 22, Hart "said Chahal had nothing to do with the pub, although at this time he was still the licence holder". Mr Padley said: "He said he believed the owner to be a 'Mr Mohammed.'" ."

A month later, the private investigating company got a phone call from Chahal saying he was the licence holder but he "only sold beer", and that Mr Mohammed was the person in charge.

But Mr Padley said: "The tenancy agreement was requested to establish the existence of Mr Mohammed, but that has never been resolved. On December 13 a letter was sent to Mr Mohammed but it was returned. In further letters were sent to Mr Mohammed, but there was no response, if such a person exists."

In the meantime further visits by investigators to The Chesterfield found it screening several other Premier League games between November and May. On one occasion, the court heard, Hart was present and the investigator overheard someone saying "it's him again", at which point Hart "walked out from behind the bar and turned the TV off ".

Mr Padley said the pub had been showing matches "over the course of the entire season" and the cost of showing Sky during that time would have been PS639.36. He also said: "We say, given the length of time, they are not fit and proper persons to hold the licence and the licence should be forfeited."

Magistrates agreed and forfeited the personal licences for both defendants. Each man was also fined PS1,598.40 and ordered to pay costs of PS2,292.66 and a victim surcharge of PS120.

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Publication:	Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England)
Date:	Jun 18, 2019
Words:	565
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