A POPULAR pub in Old Town will have its licence reviewed at a meeting later this week after staff were caught allegedly selling alcohol to children.

The Bell, in the High Street, has also been the subject of complaints about noise from its neighbours.

Landlord Steven Brownell will appear before Swindon Council’s Licensing Panel on Friday to answer questions.

The police warned a number of pubs and bars in Old Town that they would be carrying out test purchases during February.

On February 27 two volunteers aged 15 and 17 managed to get into The Bell and bought a Smirnoff Ice and a blue WKD alcopop without being challenged.

The police met Mr Brownell in early March to see if he had any systems in place to prevent under-age sales of alcohol and found he did not.

The pub passed a test purchase in May but then on August 6, after being warned more test purchases would be carried out, it failed again.

This time a 14 and a 16-year-old girl were served with a Smirnoff Ice and a blue WKD alcopop without being challenged.

Mr Brownell told police the girls were only sold alcohol because he had been distracted at the bar.

Several neighbours have complained about loud music, in particular bass beats, coming from the pub.

They say it is often on Sundays, when council environmental enforcement officers are not on duty, and have complained about live acts playing on an outdoor stage in the pub’s courtyard.

Mr Brownell told the Advertiser that he had challenged the failed test purchases as the police had not issued any fixed penalty notices at the time, as is usually the case.

He added that the outdoor stage was only used once, for a charity Wurzels concert.

The police say they tried to issue a fixed penalty notice the following day but Mr Brownell became aggressive and defensive and refused to accept it so he was reported and will now have to attend court.

They said FPNs can be issued retrospectively and they were on this occasion because their test purchase operation went on over two nights.

The licensing panel will meet tomorrow at 12.15pm.