Pubco held responsible for manager's 'tipping'
Massive chief Peter Linacre has hit out at a law that left his pubco culpable for the behaviour of one of his managers.
The 35-strong pub company was prosecuted and fined after a manager at the Market Bar in London was caught "tipping" - replacing brand name alcohol with cheaper, poorer quality alternatives.
In defence the pubco argued that it did what it could to prevent the crime but was found unable to show it had a defence of "due diligence", meaning not all reasonable precautions had been taken and the company did not do all it reasonably could to avoid the offence.
As a result Massive was found guilty of two charges of substitution of alcohol under section 15 of the Food Safety Act 1990, and fined £500 for each offence and court costs of £7,500.
"This is an area of the law that seems ridiculous," said Mr Linacre, who is managing director of the pubco. "If an individual is determined to break the law then there is little that can be done, proving your innocence as a company is profoundly difficult."
The International Federation of Spirits Producers UK (IFSP) has recently provided tests for the trade to ensure that all spirits sold are genuine in a bid to combat the problem, but the tests are still relatively new.
"The trade needs to be aware of the scale of this problem," added Mr Linacre. "The IFSP is largely unknown, we were using hydrometer testing but this only shows the ABV and we had not started with the IFSP testing.
"We had also put the manager through the British Institute of Innkeeping training but there is nothing in the handbook that covers 'tipping'.
"Environmental health is a growth industry and it seems we are being set even more hurdles to manage. More needs to be done to show how we can protect ourselves."
Council environmental health officers discovered the offence at the Market Bar during a random inspection of the premises on July 22 last year.
Philip Scathard, director of the IFSP, said: "It is vitally important that what we see on the label is what is contained in the bottle. Large quantities of illicit and bootlegged alcohol, some of it poisonous, are sold in this country. Publicans should only buy from known legitimate sources and should not be tempted to refill bottles."
Related articles:
Licensee fined for tipping (2 February 2005)
