XPost: van.general, alt.true-crime, rec.sports.motorcycles   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   A three-day liquor-licence suspension has been reinstated for a Kelowna   
   nightclub that allowed a patron wearing gang clothing inside.   
      
   The B.C. Court of Appeal sided with the B.C. Liquor Control Branch,   
   which issued the suspension to Liquid Zoo owner David Habib in 2012,   
   after police saw a man wearing a Kingpin Crew hat inside the strip club.   
      
   Appeal Court Justice David Tysoe said a B.C. Supreme Court justice was   
   wrong, earlier this year, when he ruled the suspension was too severe   
   for a first offence.   
      
   “The approach the chambers judge should have taken was to determine   
   whether the three-day suspension of the licence fell within a range of   
   possible, acceptable outcomes,” Tysoe said. “He was not to substitute   
   his own appreciation of the appropriate solution.”   
      
   He said the judge “should have afforded deference” to the liquor branch   
   adjudicator who issued the suspension.   
      
   “It was the role of the adjudicator to assess the seriousness of the   
   breach, and he specifically rejected the submission of the licence   
   holder that the breach was trivial or petty,” Tysoe said.   
      
   Tysoe laid out the controversial history of Habib and Liquid Zoo in his   
   written decision, released Dec. 31 and with which Justices Mary Saunders   
   and Ian Donald concurred.   
      
   Habib, through his company Quail Place Estates Ltd., operated the   
   nightclub prior to mid-2004, when he sold both the club and the building   
   that houses it to a numbered company.   
      
   A Liquor Control Branch investigation then revealed that one of the new   
   owners was Hells Angel Damiano Dipopolo.   
      
   Tysoe said “the sale had to be unwound” because the liquor branch   
   refused to transfer the licence after discovering the Hells Angels   
   connection.   
      
   Issues around the nightclub licence were finally resolved in late 2011,   
   and Habib reopened Liquid Zoo on January 9, 2012, with the special   
   anti-gang condition in place.   
      
   Just three days later, police did a routine walk-through of the club.   
      
   “One of the officers recognized several patrons to be members of a   
   motorcycle gang,” Tysoe said.   
      
   One was wearing the Kingpin Crew hat, which the officer took and showed   
   to Habib, who was working that evening.   
      
   In March 2012, the branch issued a notice-of-enforcement action because   
   of the incident.   
      
   Habib claimed in a court hearing that he didn't see the Kingpin Crew hat   
   until police brought it to him.   
      
   And he also argued that he believed only Hells Angels paraphernalia was   
   banned under his liquor licence.   
      
   He also claimed that while he had heard of the Kingpin Crew and knew   
   they were a motorcycle group, he did not think they were a criminal gang.   
      
   But Tysoe noted that “two bartenders or managers who were working that   
   night testified they knew the Kingpin Crew was a gang, and they had both   
   been aware of provisions of the terms and conditions of the liquor   
   licence dealing with the display of gang-affiliated identification.”   
      
   The Kingpin crew, which was headed by Habib’s brother Dale, was   
   described by police as a puppet club of the Hells Angels. It was   
   disbanded several months ago, according to Kelowna RCMP.   
      
   kbolan@vancouversun.com   
      
   Read Kim Bolan's blog, The Real Scoop.   
      
   Read the full ruling here:   
   http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/CA/13/05/2013BCCA0560.htm   
      
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   http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Kelowna+strip+club+suspension+o   
   er+gang+clothing+upheld+Court+Appeal/9343801/story.html#ixzz2pQMj7mlT   
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