Advice - is a club owner liable and what penalties would he face if he employed an unlicensed doorperson?

Can anyone tell me if a club is liable should they employ a doorman (bouncer) whose license has expired during their employment and the owner is fully aware of this. If an incident occurs and the unlicensed doorman is charged with assualt on a customer, what charges could the owner face?Advice - is a club owner liable and what penalties would he face if he employed an unlicensed doorperson?
You asked if the club is liable:





Yes and their most obvious liability is that it is a mandatory condition on their premises licence that any security staff must be properly licensed. Any alleged breach of this condition entitles statutory bodies such as the police, or any other person inc private individuals who can show a sufficient cause or reason to get involved, to ask for a 'review' of the premises licence.





A review is a request to the local licensing committee to examine alleged breaches of this condition, and other matters such as crime %26amp; disorder, public nuisance, breaches of public safety and harm to children associated with the premises. Sanctions range right up to forfeiture of the licence. Additionally the designated premises supervisor could loose their own personal licence and be disqualified from holding one for five years. If deliberate I would expect a serious sanction against those who knew. ( see Licensing Act 2003 S.51 %26amp; 52 )





An employer of door staff, in addition to the actual doorman, has to hold a licence themselves .. this sometimes leads to technical arguments as to who is the employer .. is it the club or the 'door teams manager's' as most door staff are contracted in from agencies.





You asked about the club but suffice to say the doorman is also guilty of offences if not licensed.





Your local council licensing officer can give furrher advice.





Edit: Just to clarify what some one else touched upon .. a licence is automatically renewed, assuming the holder pays the required fee. The only time a licence ceases or its scope gets reduced is if the holder surrenders it, fails to renew it, or upon transfer of the business fails to carry out the transfer documentation in the allowed time scale. A review is only commenced when a validly interested party makes an application for a review. Licensing committees do not have any view of their own independant of a review request so even if some alleged misconduct has taken place it has to be brought before them for adjudication by way of a review application.Advice - is a club owner liable and what penalties would he face if he employed an unlicensed doorperson?
Firstly dealing with the fact the owner is fully aware that the doorman is unlicensed (expired is the same as non-existent). Upon summary conviction at a Magistrate's Court, Sheriff Court or District Court, the owner / manager faces a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and/or a fine of up to 拢5,000.





It should be noted though that the SIA and the courts can in extreme cases send the trial to crown court where an unlimited fine and/or up to five years imprisonment can be imposed. This is likely if there were other factors involved to make the matter more serious such as a doorman being charged with assault as the owner / manager could be considered to have incited the incident by hiring unlicensed doormen.





Best case is it being more difficult to renew your premises license when the time arises.





Hope this helps for more info visit: http://www.the-sia.org.uk/
it is now an illegal offence.some people even ask for proof of identity.all security/doormen must display who they are.as for the owner,拢5.000 fine.even a loss of his licence.