Council pleads guilty to supplying alcohol to a minor

Napier City Council admits selling alcohol to a minor at an abandoned cricket match in February

The Napier City Council has applied to be discharged without conviction after admitting the supply of liquor to a minor at an abandoned international cricket match in Napier.

But despite a lack of police opposition to the application, Judge Tony Adeane declined to deal with the application in Napier District Court today, remanding the matter for hearing of the application on May 8.

Judge Adeane told Council lawyer Justin Cameron and council events manager Kevin Murphy he was not prepared to hear such a matter involving a substantial local authority in the confines of the weekly court's criminal list during which the case was called.

The Council is liable for a fine up to $10,000 for the offence, as holder of the liquor licence under which the alcohol was sold at premier Hawke's Bay sports stadium McLean Park, Napier, on where New Zealand was to have played Australia in a Chappell Hadlee Series one-day international on February 2.

Alcohol was sold as a crowd waited in vain for the match which in a late-afternoon decision was abandoned without a ball being bowled because wet weather in the days beforehand and damage to the park.

It's at least the fifth time liquor licences have been breached during major sports events at the park in the last 10 years, leading to prosecution of rugby or cricket authorities or action by liquor licensing authorities.

In 2007 liquor was illegally sold to a 17-year-old at a rugby match between Hawke's Bay and Waikato, leading to suspension of a manager's licence.

In 2009 sponsors and guests transgressed by partying-on more than an hour after a game in contravention of the licence, in 2010 a minor was sold liquor at a rugby match between New Zealand Maori and England, and in 2015, two 16-year-olds bought beer during a police controlled purchase operation at a World Cup cricket match between New Zealand and Afghanistan, but licence holder the Central Districts Cricket Association was discharged without conviction.