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A Christchurch club has kept its liquor licence after a man suffered a fatal brain injury in a fall following a heavy drinking session — but it will only be allowed to serve alcohol to restaurant diners for three months.
Club member Colin Hunt, known as Charlie, fell and hit his head on September 20, 2025, after a heavy drinking session on his 70th birthday. He died in hospital the following day.
Police lodged applications with the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority to cancel or suspend the club’s licence and the certificates of two bar managers following the incident.
At an ARLA hearing last month, police argued the club’s negligence was at the worst end of the scale.
Police called for the ARLA to strip or suspend the liquor licences held by the club and the manager at the time of the incident.
But the club said cancelling its licence would spell “the end” of the Cashmere Club.
At the hearing, Senior Constable Olivia Bensley said Hunt and his group’s drinking, which included being served trays of shots, was captured on CCTV over several hours that evening.
Club lawyer Tim Mackenzie told the hearing police said the club should have made more changes directly after Hunt's death, with "a wholesale investigation and terminations on the spot".
He said that was with hindsight, and pointed out police took nine months to make an application to the ARLA, even though they had the CCTV footage soon after Hunt died.
Police prosecutor Karyn South told the hearing the club's breach was one of the most serious.
"No one in that group on the night appeared the slightest bit concerned that the CCTV would ever be checked to see what time the premises were actually cleared, who drinks on the job, who is pouring drinks and not paying for them, who is going behind the bar, who is flailing around with their genitals exposed until two in the morning,” South said.
The club accepted numerous liquor licence breaches, such as serving Hunt alcohol while intoxicated and trading after its licence ended at 1am.
In the ARLA’s decision released on Thursday, the club held onto its liquor licence but will only be allowed to serve alcohol to restaurant diners for three months from February 1.
The club will be able to sell alcohol “to those who are both seated in the club’s restaurant and either enjoying a substantial meal served by the restaurant or waiting for such a substantial meal ordered to be served”.
“We can say that if this was a tavern or bar operating under an on-licence then we would have cancelled the licence. However, this is a club that is not operating for the financial benefit of a commercial owner/licensee.
"It is a community hub and its response to the unlawful events of that night has just been sufficient to satisfy us that it is unlikely that there will be a repeat of this excessive and after-hours drinking.
“What has convinced us that a sanction short of cancellation is appropriate is that the excessive and after-hours drinking is to be considered as a 'one-off' event.”
The bar manager at the time of the incident had her manager’s certificate cancelled.
-Allied Media