# When it went wrong — the licensing officer calls

- **Episode:** [218](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/218.md) (2025-07-29)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** business-failure, licensing, regulatory-issues
- **Time:** 29:26–32:24 (start 1766s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/218?t=1766](https://truthliesandwork.com/218?t=1766)

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[29:26] Leanne Elliott: So what happened when it went wrong?
[29:28] Al Elliott: The licensing officer— I went to my solicitor. By this stage, I was working with my solicitor
[29:33] Leanne Elliott: Your solicitor must have loved you
[29:34] Al Elliott: He really did
[29:34] Leanne Elliott: This must have been one of the funnest gigs that you had
[29:36] Al Elliott: He really did. I think he did wills and stuff like that, boring stuff. And then this was, this was a really bit of fun. Um, fun fact, he was also in the Commonwealth Games as a, as a speed walking, like, finalist. He got bronze or something. Um, but anyway, he, um, he eventually wrote, uh, rung me up. He went, look, he's— we need to go to court. They, they want to see us again. So went in front of the magistrates and he walked into me in the magistrate's court and he went, Bob, who was the licensing officer, Bob is furious with you. He said, I think it's the end of the, end of the road. So I, and it was, I got in front of the mags and they basically said, look, no, I'm rescinding your license, taking it away from you. You're not, you're operating otherwise in accordance with the license. So I got taken away. So I was like, oh, what do I do now? Well, I did find out, remember this, the wholesale thing where as long as you sell, as long as you sell 24 cans of lager or beer or whatever, as long as you sell 24 cans of lager, you don't need a license
[30:31] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[30:32] Al Elliott: Well, I looked at that and that, and the licensing law said it could include lager, beer, and perry. Now, perry is a pear wine. And if anyone's in the UK remembers Lambrini, Lambrini was the cheapest, petrollest, horriblest stuff you could possibly buy
[30:48] Leanne Elliott: Lambrini girls just want to have fun
[30:49] Al Elliott: Oh, it was horrible. But you could buy a litre for genuinely about 80p back then
[30:55] Leanne Elliott: And that would class as wholesale?
[30:56] Al Elliott: Well, if you bought You could, if you bought a 6-pack for about £5, that'll be 6 liters. And that meant then your minimum order just became something like 8 cans of lager or 4 cans of lager. I can't remember exactly how we worked it out, but it basically became 4 cans of lager. So we still sold individually as if it was an off-license, but every single customer had to buy this Lambrini to make it up to wholesale so that we weren't breaking the law
[31:23] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[31:25] Al Elliott: And then we also said, but don't worry if you buy it, as long as you keep it intact and give it back to us when you order again, we'll give you a refund against it. But of course, when they ordered again, they got another case of Lambrini. So, and most people, students, they drank it anyway
[31:38] Leanne Elliott: Of course they did
[31:39] Al Elliott: But then we did sell that literally at cost, possibly even less than, even below cost. So, but yeah, that lasted until the license law changed and then that was it. I went bankrupt
[31:48] Leanne Elliott: So a fun ride
[31:51] Al Elliott: I'm not gonna lie, it was a lot of fun, but it was also very, very stressful. Um, and, um, I'm now very gray, and I think a lot of that came from those like 5 years of running that. And also, obviously, I lost my house. I got that repossessed, and I also bought an investment house in Manchester that got repossessed as well. Um, and I couldn't get a bank account, couldn't get a mortgage for 7 years, you know, so
[32:16] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[32:17] Al Elliott: But still, like you say, it was a lot of fun
[32:20] Leanne Elliott: So take me back. You are at this point, what, 27, 28?