Licensing Team Crack Down on Festival Offenders

THREE cases brought by the Council’s Licensing and Legal teams have recently resulted in successful convictions.

Billy Thompson, of Alfreda Street, Battersea, London, (date of birth not known) was found guilty in his absence of touting Reading Festival tickets, at a hearing at Reading Magistrates on 27th April 2018. The court heard he had been spotted by Licensing officers outside the Gorge Café, Caversham Road, on 26th August 2017. He was fined £200 and ordered to pay £870 costs and £30 victim surcharge. On the same day but in an unrelated case, Fahad Shabbir, of Caversham Road, Reading, admitted plying for hire on the BP garage forecourt, in Richfield Avenue, on 25th August 2017. Reading Magistrates heard Mr Shabbir, 29, failed a test purchase during Reading Festival when he was found plying for hire when he held a South Oxfordshire District Council licence and not a Reading borough licence. He was fined £450 and ordered to pay £690 costs and £45 victim surcharge.

Cllr Sarah Hacker, Lead Councillor for Culture, Sport & Consumer Services, said

: “It is not a surprise that some people try to cash in on the large crowds which come to the Reading Festival every year and it is important our Licensing officers are out there doing what they can to protect festival-goers from illegal activity. “I would like to congratulate them and our Legal team on the successful prosecution of these offenders.” In another recent case, Uber driver Mohammed Faizal Khan, of Wessex Road, Didcot, appeared at Reading Magistrates on 30th April 2018 and admitted plying for hire outside Zero Degrees, in Bridge Street, Reading, on 15th July 2017. The 44-year-old was fined £150 and ordered to pay £2,016 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.