The Punch Bowl, Low Bentham: Couple who sold alcohol without a licence while running Yorkshire Dales pub fined by court - despite claiming council and court both lost evidence

Douglas and Shanti Traynor, 72 and 52, are leaseholders of The Punch Bowl in Low Bentham and faced three charges under the Licensing Act relating to the unauthorised sale of alcohol, but denied the offences.

The couple first came to the attention of council licensing officers in 2020. The pub’s alcohol licence had not been transferred to them and a new Designated Premises Supervisor had not been appointed since the last tenant had left the business. On this occasion, it was found that neither Mr Traynor nor his wife, who was the chef, had undertaken the training required to hold a personal licence, meaning they could not be named as DPS.

They made two subsequent applications to Craven Council for the transfer of the premises licences to themselves and for the nomination of a DPS, but both were deemed invalid, in part because they did not have the consent of their landlord to take over the licence from him and because other details were missing.

The Traynors claim they then sent a third application in the autumn of 2021, but Craven Council denied ever receiving this and head of licensing Tim Chadwick, who gave evidence at the trial, confirmed his team had seen only a covering letter.

The Traynors’ defence centred on their continuing to trade under the principle of ‘tacit consent’ – which can be applied if a council does not respond to an application with objections within a certain time frame. Yet magistrates agreed with the Crown Prosecution Service that this consent could only be taken when an application was considered complete and valid.

The Traynors argued that the council must have mislaid their application form, and when asked to produce it to the court, were unable to as they claimed court staff had also lost documents they had wished to submit as evidence. The Traynors represented themselves at the trial and did not call any witnesses.

The court was told that in February 2022, council officers carried out a ‘test purchase’ at The Punch Bowl and alcohol was sold to them by Mrs Traynor. Two police officers then visited the pub and confiscated a large amount of liquor, including 12 barrels of beer, 11 bottles of gin and four bottles of prosecco. At the time, the licence had been revoked and the Traynors had been informed that they were to cease selling alcohol in a letter they had received the previous month. A closure order of the pub was subsequently granted, and the couple instead continued to run a campsite and food service at the property.

Giving evidence, Mr Traynor said he believed he had done everything ‘by the book’ and that he believed he had submitted his application. His wife added that they thought the process was still ongoing because they had not been notified it had been rejected. Although a letter sent out in November 2021 warned them to cease licensable activity and referred to their ‘applications’ in plural, Mrs Traynor said she did not consider it to have specifically mentioned their most recent attempt at applying.

Finding both Traynors guilty, magistrates said: “There is no evidence that this application was made and tacit consent can thus not apply. The November letter clearly states the council’s position.”

They were each fined £632, which included the prosecution’s costs of £310, and all the seized alcohol will now be destroyed. The Traynors confirmed that they will appeal their conviction in the Crown court and are also in the process of appealing the closure order.