The renewal of a liquor licence for Bottle-O Mosgiel, in Factory Rd, was considered by Dunedin’s district licensing committee yesterday.
The applicant, McCarthy Enterprises Ltd, owns and operates three other off-licence premises under different entities.
Bottle-O Mosgiel had operated for nearly 23 years, previously affiliated with the Super Liquor group, and had renewed its licence seven times before.
Police ordered the premises to shut after it was found to be selling alcohol four days after its licence expired — for which a renewal application had not been submitted. A waiver was granted on the grounds this failure to submit was not wilful and the committee received the application 16 days after it expired.
Patricia McCarthy, one of the store’s two directors, said she only received the invoice and not the application due to issues with her internet service provider.
But lateness was not the only issue the committee took exception to.
Committee deputy chairwoman Katie Lane said the store’s host responsibility policy was "a pretty poorly written document" which suggested to her it was not being regularly reviewed.
"There are several spelling mistakes in it and punctation ones ... it tells me that not a lot of detail and care had been taken to this document."
Committee member Karen Elliot echoed concerns the document did not exhibit care, attention, nor detail.
"It’s full of spelling mistakes, it’s got a lot of mistakes in it.
"If you were taking care of your business, you wouldn’t be displaying this on your wall."
Counsel for McCarthy Enterprises Ltd Jackson Fletcher said it was an "unfair inference" that Mrs McCarthy did not look after the store because of spelling mistakes.
Mrs McCarthy said staff were "very pedantic" about requesting forms of ID and could guarantee minors or intoxicated customers would not be served.
She said Super Liquor owed them about $180,000 in rebates, which along with family stresses had culminated in a decision to sell all four of their stores.
Sergeant Nathan White, of Dunedin, said ongoing issues and stresses had compounded in "lots of little oversights" and sought assurance this would not detract from the safe sale and supply of alcohol.
"How can you assure that, when all I have heard this morning is evidence from you of oversights and little things breaking down.
"I haven’t actually heard of any robust evidence from you that says that [you] are going to do a good job here."
Medical officer of health delegate Aaron Whipp said the host responsibility policy was very lacking and had even quoted the wrong Act.
Licensing inspector Tanya Morrison said the renewal application contained documents that were "severely out of date" and she questioned why no evidence of staff training systems had been presented.
"The applicant from my view had not proven herself to be suitable to hold an alcohol licence ... this application simply must fail."
The committee would reconvene at a later date to consider written submissions.
