Falkirk pub broke Old Firm rules after police found no door stewards for Celtic v Rangers match

A Falkirk pub broke its conditions for screening Old Firm games by not having professional stewards on the door, a police spot check found.

The Star Inn on Grahams Road, Falkirk, has had strict conditions attached to its licence after an incident in 2016, during a Celtic- Rangers match, when customers spilled out of the pub onto the street, causing mayhem.

Since then, televised Old Firm games must be ticketed – with a maximum of 100 people attending – and professional stewards must be on every door, checking tickets and making sure no-one who is too drunk attempts to get in.

Sergeant Liam Livingstone told members that on February 2, 2022, police officers had done spot checks on several Falkirk pubs who were likely to be showing the Old Firm match.

Arriving at the Star Inn, they noticed that the match was being shown to about 70 patrons, but stewards were not on the door as they should have been.

They were told that door stewards were running late but were unable to return to check whether they arrived or not.

This led to the Chief Constable seeking a premises licence review which was heard at Falkirk Council’s licensing board on Wednesday.

Sgt Livingstone said that he had spoken to the pub’s manager, Victoria Redding, and she had been “open and honest about the situation”.

Ms Redding told members of the board that the company she uses regularly could not provide cover due to staff being off with Covid.

And although she made arrangements with another company, when she arrived at 6pm, there was no sign of their door staff.

She was assured that they would be there but they did not appear, despite her making several phone calls.

She said: “We did have tickets and although the door stewards didn’t show up my partner was on the door checking tickets.

“Every other condition was followed by the book – we had plastic tumblers, tickets, we did everything possible.

“I know I should have closed the premises but there are other premises round us who don’t do tickets and to me putting 70 people onto other pubs would have been more hassle.

“After the game we shut the premises early so there was no hassle and thankfully there wasn’t any.”

Convener Niall Coleman said there had been a breach of the licence but he noted that the manager had been let down by a third party and did make an effort to correct the error.

The board issued a written warning but they also agreed that Ms Redding had not acted in a way that was inconsistent with licensing objectives and a personal licence review was not necessary.

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