th English coach firm whose vehicle, I with a bar,
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was stopped in Scotland, found not guilty this week of one charge ;ontravening Scottish licensing regulai. But the firm was fined £.10 on another .ge concerning the amount of liquor ied on a contract carriage service.
a reserved judgment at Perth this week, iff Stuart Kernack found Hicks Coaches lackburn Road, Accrington, owners of coach, not guilty of the first charge. ; alleged that the concern had icked in liquor during a journey in hshire without holding a licence under ion 131 of the 1959 Licensing Act. icences, the Sheriff ruled, were applicable to fixed premises, and a bus travelling teen England and Scotland could in no be described as premises. So, in that ect, a bus did not come within the terms le Section in question.
he Sheriff also found that the firm's .er driver, John Woollam, was not .y of selling spirits without a licence.
ut he pointed out that the second charge nst the firm was framed under a section he 1962 Licensing Act. This made it al to carry a container holding two or e bottles or cans, or six pints of liquor ill, on a contract carriage. This limit been clearly exceeded in the present and he accordingly found the firm y on that count and fined it £10.
mitigation defence lawyer, Mr A. R. eous, said that like other bus firms Hicks taken legal advice before putting bars on their buses four years ago. They had been told it was legal but had not appreciated that there were differences in the licensing law north and south of the Border. In England there was no equivalent of the law on which the firm had been found guilty.
The Sheriff's decision is not as significant as it appears at first sight, writes Martin Hayes. Few "executive" coaches with fitted bars venture north of the Border and the Scottish regulation is well known. In fact, some English operators are known to be envious of its provisions because it means that embarrassing episodes with passengers bringing drink aboard, can be more easily prevented.