Judge tells Sky and FAPL to go after satellite suppliers
A judge has called on Sky and the FA Premier League to stop prosecuting licensees and instead turn their attentions to satellite suppliers.
District Judge Gillespie made his comments after acquitting Warwickshire licensee Gary Draper this week after he was prosecuted for using a foreign satellite channel to show Premiership Football.
The judge found Draper, licensee of the White Hart in Nuneaton, had not acted dishonestly because he believed his system was above board.
In handing down his judgement Gillespie observed that with a number of similar prosecutions pending, Sky and the FAPL's "costs might be better spent upon prosecuting the bigger fish rather than the sprats."
Real villainsJudge Gillespie said licensees were nearly always of good character and the "real villains" of the piece were "dealers in the decoders and cards".
It is still a concern to both us and the licensed trade that these suppliers are using spurious, and sometimes downright false, statements to convince publicans to sign upFAPL spokesman Dan Johnson.
Draper's solicitor Paul Dixon, of Molesworth, Bright, Clegg said: "Judge Gillespie's comments that licensees are of good character echoes what we have been saying for months and we are delighted that yet another honest, diligent, hard-working licensee has been acquitted."
However, FAPL spokesman Dan Johnson told MA: "Licensees who use foreign satellite systems are breaking the law and run the risk of prosecution, however we are in the process of targeting suppliers and once we are in a position to take legal action against them we will.
Concern"It is still a concern to both us and the licensed trade that these suppliers are using spurious, and sometimes downright false, statements to convince publicans to sign up to a service that could ultimately cost them their livelihoods.
"Any reference to European legislation, a DTI ruling or a Lindsay Hoyle MP letter in suppliers' publicity material quite simply isn't worth the paper it's written on - we have spoken to their respective offices for clarification of this."
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