The Royal British Legion in Forfar has escaped with a “smack on the wrist” following a breach of licensing laws.
Town branch chairman Charlie Brown appeared at a special meeting of Angus Council’s licensing board this week to face questions surrounding the serving of alcohol to non-members at a funeral party at the Academy Street clubrooms in January.
The club’s rules state only members of the Legion and persons signed into the club by a family member who is part of the Legion are allowed to buy and consume alcohol on its premises.
However, Mr Brown explained an application for an occasional licence, the type of which is needed to serve drink to non-members, takes a minimum of seven days to be approved and the nature of a funeral gathering does not allow for such notice to be given.
He also told the board a member of staff at the Legion had applied to take a bar manager training course to obtain a public licence three times but had been cancelled on each occasion.
Mr Brown said: “I accept we have operated outside what our licence allowed us to do and we take cognisance of the fact there are other licensees in the town objecting to it.”
Board chairman Alex King said he hoped the Legion would take the incident as a warning and obtain the appropriate licence.
“Quite clearly the trade are beginning to feel the pinch,” said Mr King.
“In the past they were prepared to tolerate it, but now there are licensees who are no longer prepared to do that. Take this as a smack on the wrists and proceed accordingly.”