I strongly dispute the nonsense about "selling three times etc" resulting in a suspension of their license. Tesco could sell weapons of mass destruction to angst-ridden teenagers and there isn't a single licensing authority with the cojones to suspend their license! They know full well that Tesco would have an appeal in front of a compliant local magistrate inside a day.
There's a co-op in Leicester that has been caught in police stings at least 7 times in the last year. Fined? No. Suspended license? No. All that happened was the co-op changed the "responsible person". Again. And again. And.....
The Licensing Act 2003 is quite possibly the most business-friendly legislation ever. It is
totally impossible to successfully object to a license being granted (it'll be appealed to magistrates who will grant the license provided CCTV is installed) and you've more chance of martians cutting your lawn than a licensee losing their license. We have 17 alcohol outlets in a radius of one mile. We had 8 in 2002.
I can't fully express my disgust at this legislation because if I did then the mods would have to do radical surgery on this post
