Wetherspoon spends £50k on aborted review
JD Wetherspoon spent about £50,000 on legal and other fees preparing to defend itself at an aborted licence review for one of its pubs that failed three underage sting operations.
The licence review of JDW's Old Market Hall in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, was abandoned on the day of the hearing.
Writing in this month's Wetherspoon News, company chairman Tim Martin slated the use of sting operations at the pub as "entrapment" and pointed out that it caused "outrage" in local newspaper the South Yorkshire Times.
Martin said: "The hearing was due to take place in February — and we engaged solicitors and barristers and prepared written witness statements for the pub manager, area manager and our chief executive John Hutson, among others.
"On the morning of the hearing, the local authority, presumedly on the advice of its barrister, decided it did not wish to proceed with the licensing review, but not before Wetherspoon's had spent about £50,000 on legal fees.
"It is difficult to understand the motivation of the local authority in this case, especially since at least one other pub in the town also fell victim to a similar sting operation, but, unlike Wetherspoon, steps were not taken to review its licence."
Martin, a long-time critic of sting operations, said it "seems crazy to bring such intense pressure to bear on the pub industry, when unprecedented numbers of closures are occurring throughout the land".
More generally, Martin challenged PM David Cameron to "walk the walk" on his stated aim of cutting red tape for businesses — Martin said the pub trade is "buckling at the knee under the oppressive weight of red tape and taxation".
