Section 109: Conviction
324.One of the licensing objectives in the Act is to prevent gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime. This section requires holders of operating licences to take certain steps in the event that they are convicted of a criminal offence in Great Britain or abroad.
325.Where the holder of an operating licence is convicted of an offence in Great Britain, or of a relevant offence by a court outside Great Britain, he must inform the Commission as soon as reasonably practical. This ensures that the Commission has the necessary information it needs to regulate licence holders, and could, if it wished, commence a review of the licence.
326.If the holder of an operating licence is convicted of a relevant offence before a court in Great Britain he must inform the court immediately that he holds an operating licence. This is so that the court can consider whether it should exercise its powers to order forfeiture of the operating licence as part of the sentence it imposes for the offence.
327.A list of offences which are “relevant offences” is set out at Schedule 7. These are offences under British law (the jurisdictions of England and Wales, and Scotland). An offence under the law of another country is a relevant offence if it is similar in nature to an offence listed in Schedule 7. This ensures that a person’s suitability to hold a licence is considered in relation to any criminal conviction for a serious offence, not just those in Great Britain (see section 126 for the definition of “relevant offence”).
