Shrewsbury landlord cleared on live sport broadcasts

Undercover investigators working for the satellite giant visited The Monkmoor pub in Shrewsbury on four different occasions last year, the town's magistrates court heard.

On all four visits they found football matches televised live by Sky Sports being shown on large plasma TVs dotted around the pub.

The investigators also sent three different letters to premises supervisor Anthony Bartle, who has been in charge of the pub for the past 14 months, but received no reply to any of them.

Karen Anderton, from Sky, told a trial at the magistrates court yesterday that there was no commercial agreement in place between the TV firm and the pub.

She told the court the pub did have a domestic contract – but that cost around £60 a month, compared to more than £1,000 a month for the more expensive commercial one.

The court heard investigators visited on March 30, August 31, October 5 and October 28 last year. On each occasion a match was on and there were at least 20 customers in the pub watching. Investigators also spotted boards inside and outside the premises advertising live sport and Sky Sports.

But Bartle, 42, who lives at the pub, denied three charges of dishonestly receiving a programme with intent to avoid payment. He said as soon as he was made aware of a problem he referred the matter to his boss Jonathan Hunt, a director of Brookfield Pub Company which owns The Monkmoor and 10 other premises.

Bartle told the court Mr Hunt reassured him he had done nothing wrong. Giving evidence, the defendant said: "He said he would sort it and I took him at his word.

"Mr Hunt is an experienced, multiple operator. I have never had any issues with anything he has told me before. So when I asked him and he told me not to worry, I had no reason to worry."

Mr Hunt told the court he had legal proceedings issued against him by Sky on two other occasions for pubs in Birmingham.

He said he was cleared in one case and proceedings were dropped in the other. "I told him that what he was doing was not breaking the law, it was perfectly legal," Mr Hunt said.

Magistrates found Bartle not guilty on all three charges and dismissed the case. Bartle served for 12 years with the 2 Para Regiment before leaving with an honourable discharge in 2003 and moving into the licensed trade.