Revocation proceedings

I was interested to read the question last week about a justices' licence being revoked. I was recently served with an application to revoke my licence following allegations of sales taking place after hours. The crown court hearing for the after-hours sales takes place in July, one month after the revocation hearing. I am confident that I will not be found guilty of the offence, but I am worried that my licence will be revoked before the trial goes ahead. Can I ask the justices to wait until the crown court hearing has taken place?

There is case law in respect of this situation. One case suggests that where criminal proceedings and revocation applications arise out of the same facts then the application to revoke the justices' licence should not be heard until the criminal proceedings have been completed. On the other hand, a second case decided that if there were breaches of licensing law as well as any criminal proceedings to be considered then the justices could proceed with the revocation application before the criminal trial had been completed. However, the Good Practice Guide does recommend that it is better practice to follow the decision where revocation proceedings should be postponed until the criminal hearing has been completed. It is important that you notify the court of the date of the criminal proceedings as soon as possible and request that the revocation application be adjourned until after this date so that the justices are fully aware of all the facts that they need to be aware of and can make the appropriate decision to adjourn the revocation proceedings.