REFUSED ADMITTANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1926, Page 6

REFUSED ADMITTANCE

"LICENSEE WITHIN HIS RIGHTS."

Beer thrown from a bedroom window o£ the Shamrock Hotel on 6th December last fell on the dress of a passing lady, who complained of the incident to the police. A constable interviewed the proprietor of the hotel, but was refused permission to enter one of the upstairs rooms, which the proprietor maintained was private. As a result, the hotelkeeper was charged under the Police Offences Act at the Magistrate's Court recently with having hindered the policeman in the execution of his duty. . In delivering his reserved judgment this morning, Mr. E. Page, S.M., said that the case raised the question o£ the right of a constable at all timeß and for all purposes to enter licensed premises. Bection 226 of the Licensing Act gave any constable the right at all times, to enter licensed premises for the purpose of deteoting any violation of the Act, but it had to bi clear that his purpose m going in was to detect or prevent any such viola-. tion. In the present case there was no. suggestion that the constable's entry had any connection with the provisions of the Licensing Act. His sole purpose was to make some inquiry as to the throwing of the liquor, which circumstances would, at the most, have constituted a breach of one of the provisions of the Police Offence* Act or a breach of a city bylaw. "I do not think he had a legal right to demand admittance to any part of the nremises any more than he would nave oeeu entitled to demand admittance to any part of a private house," said his Worship. "In my opinion, therefore, the licensee was within his rights in refusing the constable permission to enter a private bedroom, and his action did not constitute a breach of the Act. The int'ormatKv? will bo dismissed."