Billingham's Porky Pint loses alcohol licence for Covid-19 breaches

Customers were found inside the Porky Pint during the lockdown in January

A pub which deliberately opened during a coronavirus lockdown has lost its licence to serve alcohol.

Paul Henderson opened The Porky Pint in Billingham in January to protest against Covid regulations and the "devastation" caused to pubs, Stockton Council's licensing committee heard.

Councillors heard the landlord had failed to pay a £1,000 fine and deemed the breach "extremely serious".

Mr Henderson said he is considering appealing.

The committee heard police and council officers found people drinking inside the Mill Lane pub when the country was in a full lockdown.

Philip Kolvin QC, representing Mr Henderson, said it was a "very unusual" case where a "responsible, professional and highly qualified" man had taken a deliberate decision to disobey a law. 

The committee was also told he was not an "irresponsible greedy person" and had acted the way he did out of personal belief, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

James Kemp, who represented Cleveland Police and the council, said it was not for people and licence holders to "pick and choose which bits they like and which bits they don't" from the rules. 

"The law is there, whatever you may think, for a reason," added Mr Kemp.

More than 40 people wrote to the council in support of Mr Henderson.

The committee "gave credit" to Mr Henderson for running the pub in a "responsible manner" up until the breach but the panel ruled his actions were "extremely serious" and "totally inappropriate". 

"Mr Henderson's actions had the potential to be hugely detrimental to his customers, their families and friends, work colleagues, the wider community of Billingham and the borough," the councillors said.

After the decision, Mr Henderson said he was "considering all our options".

He has three weeks to lodge an appeal.