Manager's certificate suspended for breach

Former Federal Diner director Emilie Jane Brosnahan has had her manager's certificate suspended for three months, from June 1, following a licensing "debacle''.

Queenstown police applied to the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority to have Brosnahan's licence suspended or cancelled.

A hearing was held in March and a decision released earlier this month by authority chairman District Court Judge John Hole and member Ms Judith Moorhead.

Police alleged Brosnahan allowed unlicensed premises to be used for the sale of alcohol in August 2015.

The issue arose over the use of a cottage next to the Federal Diner, and an incomplete application for a licence variation.

The authority's decision said a licensing inspector "advised the respondent in writing that there could be no sale and supply of alcohol from the cottage, as it appeared was currently the case, as it was unlicensed''.

"Miss Brosnahan informed the inspector by email on 8 August, 2015 that she had thought everything was in order but would close the cottage to the public immediately.

"That same evening the police visited and found a group of six adults and two children sitting at a table in the cottage bar with open bottles of alcohol on the table.''

Brosnahan has since resigned as a director of Federal Diner.

She admitted liability, the authority said, and "taken responsibility for the licensing debacle''.

"It is clear that the idea of the cottage pop up bar was hers and she seems to have pursued it rather blindly, without due regard for the licensing realities.''

The authority was concerned at the "duplicity'' involved.

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