Maungaturoto Hotel suffers drought

A pub with no beer is generally considered an Aussie comedic phenomenon, but the historic Maungaturoto Hotel has become the pub with no beer after the manager had the renewal of his liquor licence declined because of three breaches of his existing one.

Both the on and off licences expired fully in April but were already under suspension because of the record of licensee Satnam Singh.

Licencing parties the NZ Police, Kaipara District Council and Northland District Health Board had all objected to Mr Singh's management but were not against a hotel operating out of the premises.

However there were a number of objections relating to the management of the premises involving three significant breaches of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act in 18 months.

Mr Singh's licence was first suspended for 24 hours on November 25, 2015, after failing a Controlled Purchase Operation – a police sting to catch underage booze buying or out of hours sales.

This was followed by a five-day suspension on June 14, 2016, for being drunk on the premises as duty manager.

And finally, on November 11, 2016, a 14-day suspension for allowing customers to be drunk and disorderly on the premises.

The ARLA ruled at that time Mr Singh had failed to conduct the pub in a proper manner, and cancelled his manager's licence.

In January this year the Kaipara District Licensing Committee issued a temporary authority to Affordable Earthmoving Ltd to trade under the hotel's then current base licence but this ended on April 20, meaning all existing licences have now expired.

Police Senior Sergeant John Fagan said police had followed up various reports of drunk people leaving the hotel and driving, disorderly behaviour and assault.

"It was that management we had concerns about,” he said “with the important issue being the risks of alcohol-related harm in the community.”