Mataranka Hotel punished by NT Liquor Commission for breaching alcohol supply laws

A pub licensee sold liquor outside of approved hours, failed to scan IDs and served alcohol to patrons either intoxicated or “likely” to be on the banned drinker register, the NT Liquor Commission has found.

The Mataranka Hotel. Picture: Facebook

A pub licensee southwest of Katherine sold liquor outside of approved hours, failed to scan IDs and served alcohol to patrons either intoxicated or “likely” to be on the banned drinker register, the Northern Territory Liquor Commission has found.

Westbrick Pty Ltd, licensee of the Mataranka Hotel, will be prohibited from selling takeaway alcohol on March 20 and fined $880.

According to the commission’s decision on February 20, Licensing NT received a complaint from NT Police on July 7 last year relating to alcohol being served to persons on the banned drinker register on May 24.

Licensing NT requested documentation and CCTV footage from the licensee, which was only partially produced after a number of extensions were granted.

USB sticks and other material provided to Licensing NT uncovered a litany of breaches between 4.45pm and 8.13pm on May 24, 2023, the commission found.

Analysis of CCTV revealed three sales of takeaway liquor to persons who appear “on any reasonable assessment to be [intoxicated or] very intoxicated, with two of the customers “likely” to be on the banned drinker register.

Banned drinker register scanner in the Northern Territory. Picture: The Department of Corporate and Digital Development

A further three sales occurred without customers having their identification scanned to determine whether they were on the banned drinker register, and two after 8pm when their licensed hours for takeaway alcohol ceased.

The commission accepted one of these was a “technical breach,” as the transaction was at 8.03pm and the hotel was “quite busy” at the time.

However, the second breach was flagrant, as it involved the sale of takeaway alcohol to an employee.

Westbrick Pty Ltd was also unable to produce appropriate records from the point-of-service machine on May 24.

A total of 11 breaches were admitted by the licensee, which the commission said in its decision was becoming a recidivist flouter of Territory grog rules.

It received two warning letters in November 2019 for failing to supply CCTV and failing to ensure the premises had an acting nominee in place.

An additional warning was given in February 2020 for employees not appropriately matching up IDs with the banned drinker register, and the licensee received its first infringement notice on April 17, 2020, for again not supplying CCTV.

A second infringement notice was issued on June 3, 2022, for selling takeaway liquor to a person who preferred identification that was not theirs.

The licensee received another warning, its fourth in total, on February 21 last year.

“The Commission is therefore comfortably satisfied that this licensee and its nominees have been given every opportunity to understand their obligations under the Act and are well aware of the importance of doing so,” it said in its decision.

In mitigation, the commission found Westbrick Pty Ltd had made a number of positive changes to prevent further breaches, including voluntarily ceasing takeaway sales at 6pm, rather than 8pm, and deploying a second staff member to handle takeaway sales.

Originally published as Mataranka Hotel punished by NT Liquor Commission for breaching alcohol supply laws