A pub landlord is facing thousands of pounds in fines after a customer allegedly broke coronavirus rules by standing up to play beer pong. Ian Snowball, 62, plans to challenge in court the "pedantic" fine against his Showtime sports bar in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
The alleged rule-breaking took place on June 25 last year, when diners were not allowed to stand when eating or drinking in pubs to prevent the spread of Covid-19. But in papers served on Mr Snowball and his son, Kirklees Council claims they broke health and safety law by letting a man drink from a paper cup while standing up to play the bar game.
The pair were previously fined £1,000 for breaching lockdown protocols for having customers on their premises after 10pm in November 2020. Now that the company and the Snowballs all face fines for a second time, that figure doubles, meaning they could be charged £2000 each if they lose their case.
Mr Snowball said: “It’s totally pedantic. The law says you are not allowed to stand up and eat and drink. Obviously, that’s written because they don’t want people walking around the pub, eating drinking and transmitting the virus.
“But this is a case of a person sitting down on a seat, and then on one occasion allegedly standing up, throwing a ball and drinking and then sitting down in the same seat. They haven’t moved, but the difference is, they’re said to stand up to drink at that seat."
Mr Snowball has helped run the city centre pub since 2016. He has dubbed the future court case a “David v Goliath battle”.
He said: “What happened was, from [the council's] side, they came and looked through the window and saw some people standing playing beer pong.
"At that time, it was unlawful to allow people to stand up and eat or drink, but beer pong is played in a plastic cup and there’s a tiny little drink in it, and you throw the ball. Then they also go on in their evidence to say there were seven people at the table when at that time you were only allowed six.”
However, Mr Snowball claims he has CCTV evidence that proves this did not happen. He plans to show the video in court when he challenges the council on Friday, April 29.
He said: “We’ve got probably the most advanced CCTV system in the UK of any live venue, so every single thing is recorded. Your temperature is recorded, the number of people who are in the pub is recorded and your movements are recorded.
“And when we’ve checked it, we can see quite clearly no one stood to drink while playing the game.”
He added: “Also, through the CCTV we counted, and there are not seven people at the table. There is my son managing the game, and you can see that the people who stayed there and played the ping pong game stayed for three hours at the venue.”
Mr Snowball claimed that no other business in Huddersfield has been hit with multiple fines for breaking Covid protocols and believes the council has a “vendetta” against him. He claimed this started when he undertook work to improve a road at the back of his property, which the council planners later told him to halt.
He said: “We call it a vendetta against me, against Ian Snowball. We’ve got a little bit of a battle going on with the council, whereby there’s a road running at the back which is derelict.
"It belongs to them, but when we first came here, which was in 2016, we went to see the council and told them that the road was a state and it was unsafe. At that meeting, the lady who was there from planning said, “We don’t have the money to do it, but go ahead and do it yourself.”
“So we spent tens of thousands of pounds on new cobbles and new York stone for the path and started doing all the work. Then along came a man from the council who own it and said you don’t have our permission to do that – and were then left in limbo.
He added: “It’s kind of been constantly ongoing.”
Mr Snowball said he had approved of how Boris Johnson handled the pandemic but agreed that there was “one rule for politicians and another for local people”.
He said: “There is and there always has been and there always will be. It’s a privilege of the wealthy, and people in those positions are always treated differently – and the council is one of those people.”
Colin Parr, Strategic Director for Environment and Climate Change at Kirklees Council said: "When Covid-19 restrictions were in place, they were there to keep us all safe. And we thank the vast majority of businesses who worked really hard to make sure these rules were followed at all times, playing a key part in reducing Covid-19 transmission.
"We do not want to prosecute any local business, but any breach of these restrictions has to be taken incredibly seriously in the interests of public safety, irrespective of when they took place. In this case some restrictions were not followed and subsequent fines were issued to the owners, which remain unpaid, resulting in the prosecution."
