Unlimited fines for UK licensing offences

Previous limits on certain fines for various offences committed in England and Wales have been scrapped allowing magistrates to hand out unlimited fines to licensees for offences committed under the Licensing Act 2003.

The commencement of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 Section 85 also means that publicans number among those now subject to unlimited fines from the Magistrate’s Court where they’d formerly been subject to a limit of £2,000, £5,000 or £20,000.

However the courts must still take into account the financial situation of the offender when deciding on the fine and only convictions relating to offences committed on or after 12th March this year will be subject to the new ruling.