Crown & Badger liquor licence renewed after concerns over management practices, alleged assault

The Crown & Badger tavern on The Strand in Tauranga. Photo / Alex Cairns

An owner of Tauranga’s Crown & Badger has won a bid to have the tavern’s liquor licence renewed after concerns about inexperienced staff being left in charge and an alleged serious assault.

Good Hospitality Ltd had its application for renewal of its on-licence for The Crown & Badger on The Strand heard by the Tauranga District Licensing Committee at a public hearing on November 7.

A copy of the committee’s written decision has been released to the Bay of Plenty Times.

It revealed that the public hearing was held because there were “clearly some issues” the committee needed to explore.

These included company director Jessica Mackenzie (formerly Jessica Rafferty) describing the activity of the premises as a tavern in her renewal application but stating that food sales were its main purpose.

During the hearing, Mackenzie confirmed the business revenue split was 65% alcohol sales and 35% food and sought a rollover of the current days and hours of operation. These were from 9am to 2am seven days a week.

The committee also inquired into an alleged serious assault on May 3-4 outside the tavern involving a passerby and a contracted security guard. The passerby has filed an assault complaint with police and was a witness at the hearing.

Sergeant Dan Roser, the local Alcohol Harm Prevention Coordinator, told the committee there had been some incidents in and around the Crown & Badger but it was not at the top of the list of problem premises.

He said the passerby had been arrested for disorderly behaviour and intoxication but later released without charge and taken home.

The Tauranga District Licensing Committee heard concerns about "a constant flow" of acting and temporary managers at the Crown & Badger. Photo / Andrew Warner

Tauranga City Council alcohol licensing inspector Juanita Hollamby’s full report was “taken as read” by the committee. It outlined her original concerns about the “constant flow” of acting and temporary manager appointments.

She believed a “procession of inexperienced employees in recent times” were not sufficiently skilled to manage a high-risk downtown tavern and said it should have at least one designated supervised area at all times.

Two former Crown & Badger staff were due to give evidence to support their emailed complaints about alleged poor management practices and lack of training, which Mackenzie denied. The committee “put their comments to one side” after the complainants failed to appear.

Jessica Mackenzie, formerly known as Jessica Rafferty, is a director of Good Hospitality Ltd, the company behind the Crown and Badger. Photo / NZME

Mackenzie acknowledged some of the concerns in Hollamby’s report but said she was unaware of most of them and was “truly sorry”.

She trained an acting operations manager to cover for her during her maternity leave but staff turnover increased after she had her baby in February. Her mother, a certified manager, helped get the business “back on track”.

The acting operations manager resigned in September and Mackenzie was now spending more time in the business, including up to 30 hours a week on-site. She believed she was doing things “by the book”.

The licensing committee found that, despite the on-licence renewal being unopposed by the relevant agencies, Mackenzie had “left herself open” by relying on inexperienced staff to run her late-night, high-risk tavern on several occasions.

It said it was persuaded to grant the on-licence renewal with a suite of discretionary conditions to ”keep the bar operating safely and responsibly”, with a December 8, 2025, expiry date.

“We expect a vast improvement in this area of Ms Mackenzie’s oversight,” the decision said.

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.