A tough line taken on a Greymouth hotel which has repeatedly broken alcohol laws should be a warning to others, the police on the West Coast said.
Alcohol Harm Reduction Officer Sergeant Sean Judd, of Wesport police, said rule bending by Revingtons Hotel management and behaviour by some patrons were at the extreme end of the scale but it was not a reflection of the wider West Coast.
"It's an ongoing issue we've had with these premises. It's certainly not indicative of the whole of the West Coast as there are some licensed premises doing a really good job but unfortunately this one was a little bit slower in getting the message and to do that we had to take them to a hearing," Mr Judd said.
The Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority this week renewed the hotel's licence on a restricted basis with conditions including implementing a host responsibility plan, staff training, a formal intoxication assessment policy, a security plan and un updated fire and evacuation plan.
Mr Judd said the restrictions acknowledged police frustrations.
They had dealt with licence breaches on eight occasions since the start of May. On several occasions officers found intoxicated patrons in the bar including people so affected by alcohol they could not walk unassisted, were vomiting and had urinated on themselves, he said. They were called to a number of fights at the hotel in the last month.
Mr Judd said he had not yet spoken with the hotel's management but that the judge had made it clear at the hearing he was less than impressed with the evidence presented to him.
"What we saw were staff members who seemed unable to make a safe assessment as to a customer's level of intoxication and staff unaware of who was in their bar which resulted in patrons who may have been ejected earlier freely returning," Mr Judd said.
The hotel must now close at 1am - two hours earlier than previously - and the licence has only been renewed for only one year. The hotel's on-licence was suspended for two weeks from Monday of this week.
