Sheffield pub licensee gets Sky TV conviction quashed

Darroll Palmer was convicted last summer in his absence of four counts of ‘dishonest reception of a television transmission with the intent to avoid payment of the applicable charge’.

The 53-year-old, of Slingsby Place, Manor, who was listed as a designated premises supervisor on the licence of The Terminus Tavern in Darnall, was ordered to pay more than £6,000 in fines, compensation and the victim surcharge.

But he challenged the ruling, saying he was overseas at the time and had been unaware of the charges until after the case went before magistrates on July 17 last year.

Mr Palmer made a ‘statutory declaration’, and the case against him was dismissed by Sheffield Magistrates’ Court last Thursday, February 28.

The prosecution had been brought by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), which warned at the time that licensees showing Sky TV illegally risked unlimited fines.