Chairman of the Queenstown Lakes district licensing committee, Judge Bill Unwin, at a recent meeting suggested Rodney Bowler, the co-owner of the Luggate Hotel, consider conceding control of the company by appointing a third director after police raised concerns about his suitability to hold a duty manager’s certificate.
Police opposed Mr Bowler’s application primarily because of his seven convictions and his failure to disclose them.
Mr Bowler and his partner, Rowena Burgess, are directors of Luggate Hotel 2016 Ltd.
Alcohol Harm Prevention Sergeant Tracy Haggart said Mr Bowler (57), an engineer, applied for his duty manager’s certificate in November last year.
He also applied for an on-licence, which was still being processed.
Despite Mr Bowler having accumulated seven convictions over the past 26 years — the most recent being for disorderly behaviour, for which he was sentenced in the Queenstown District Court last month — his application for a duty manager’s certificate did not list any.
Sgt Haggart said his on-licence application disclosed one conviction, for common assault in 2013.
He had two convictions for refusing to supply a blood sample, one in 1991 in Invercargill and one in 2000 in Alexandra.
He also had one conviction for fighting in a public place, in Dunedin in 1996; two other assaults, one in 1999 and one in 2002; and a conviction for disorderly behaviour, downgraded from a charge of threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm, which he denied, entered in March this year.He also had an "extensive" driving offence history, including two periods of suspension.
Mr Bowler said his failure to disclose the convictions was an honest mistake as he understood he did not have to disclose any conviction more than seven years old.
At the time he filled out the application, his latest conviction had not been entered and he thought the conviction in 2013 dated to earlier than that.
"I’m not really happy with my old history, but it is what it is.‘‘I don’t feel I’m a threat to anybody or a dangerous person.
"I’ve had a [duty manager’s certificate] previously with those convictions and have never had any problems."
Committee chairman Judge Bill Unwin said what helped Mr Bowler’s case was his last certificate, approved in 2008, stated "nil" convictions.
However, one of the purposes of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act was to try to "keep people with criminal records out of the business", he said.
"If people come before us who show disrespect for the law, we’re not likely to put them in charge of places where they might further disrespect the law."
Judge Unwin suggested Mr Bowler seek legal advice before his hearing for the on-licence application and asked him to consider appointing a third director to the company "so that the other two can outvote you ... so that you aren’t in control, so there would be a better chance of you getting an on-licence".
"You need to think about that, because otherwise you’re facing huge problems."
The committee reserved its decision.
