High Court hearing after pub's Guinness delivery service was shut down by PSNI

A High Court hearing is due to take place in Belfast today in relation to the PSNI's move to shut down a Guinness delivery van in the city last month.

Hatfield House bar on the Ormeau Road is challenging the move and said that despite numerous requests, police have still not told them which piece of legislation it is alleged to have breached.

The Guinness home delivery service was launched in April and proved popular with customers who were missing a pint of their favourite stout during lockdown.

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In an effort to keep people at home in accordance with the guidelines, customers were asked to phone in and pay for their orders the day before.

The next day staff in the Hatfield van, which was fitted out with Guinness taps, arrived at homes, poured the drinks into plastic glasses and left them on the doorsteps, ensuring a no-contact service.

However, just two weeks later, and just days after it made headlines on US television, the pub announced it had been "forced to suspend" the delivery service.

The pub said it had "asked the PSNI on numerous occasions to outline which relevant piece of legislation we are alleged to have breached but to date they haven’t been able to do this".

At the time, Belfast District Commander Chief Superintendent Jonathan Roberts said: "Yesterday [April 18] officers on patrol in south Belfast spoke with a number of individuals and files are now being prepared for submission to the Public Prosecution Service in relation to potential breaches of the Licensing (NI) Order 1996".

The team at the the Hatfield instructed a Health & Safety Assessor, a barrister and a solicitor to challenge the suspension.

Their solicitor also wrote to the PSNI seeking clarification on which legislation had been breached but received no reply.

The team then lodged a judicial review against the PSNI's actions.

An interim hearing is due to take place today at the High Court in Belfast while a full hearing is due to take place next Friday.

A Hatfield spokeswoman told the Irish News: "We have got to take a stand because it is not only our business but it the guys' jobs as well.

"We lodged judicial review papers against the PSNI, their actions. They didn't actually give us a decision, it was just their actions that caused the stoppage," she said.

"The more we thought about it, it wasn't fair because we aren't breaking the law. They couldn't give us a rationale. We looked at coronavirus legislation, licensing legislation and health and safety matters.

"We argued that it was an urgent matter because of the loss of earnings to ourselves and the judge agreed. We got leave for a judicial review".

She added: "They approached us last week and said `Can we talk?'. They still haven't been able to say what exactly we are doing wrong".