Last updated at 11:33, Friday, 31 August 2012

The owners of a country house hotel have been fined £5,000 for holding an unlicensed wedding reception.

Nicholas Keith Lawler, 44, and Ann Elizabeth Slaymaker, 45, run Winder Hall Country House Hotel at Low Lorton, near Cockermouth.

They admitted breaching the Licensing Act 2003 when they appeared in front of magistrates in Workington.

They were each told to pay a £2,500 fine, £42.50 costs and a £15 surcharge.

The court heard that they had applied for a temporary event notice to allow a wedding reception to be held in a marquee at the hotel on April 14, outside their usual licence conditions. But the application was rejected as it was submitted too late.

The wedding reception went ahead and the pair were prosecuted by Cumbria police.

Lawler and Slaymaker were each told they could pay the court at a rate of £100 per month.

First published at 11:26, Friday, 31 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk