A SOUTHAMPTON pub has been left counting the costs of a brush with the music licence police at London’s High Court.

One of the country’s top judges has slapped Colin Cheevers and Stacy Maria Leeson, proprietors of the Griffin, with a music ban and a legal costs bill of almost £4,000.

The Chancellor of the High Court, Sir Geoffrey Vos, banned them from playing recorded music at the pub after hearing that they were caught playing recorded copyrighted music there without a Performing Rights Society (PRS) licence.

In addition to the ban, Cheevers and Leeson also face a legal costs bill of £3,750 that must be paid by 29 June.

The pair were ordered not to play any more music at the Griffin and any other premises they run until they bring their music licence up to date.

Failure to obey the order until all licence fees are brought up to date would be regarded as contempt of court, the penalties for which can be fines of up to £10,000 and up to six months prison.

Lawyers for PRS said that an inspector had attended the premises on February 3, and heard recorded tracks being played including “Man! I Feel Like A Woman”, “Perfect Strangers”, Rock A Bye” and “Uptown Funk”.

They said solicitors had sent letters to the premises informing Cheevers and Leeson of the nature and extent of PRS’s repertoire and the fact that the playing in public of sound recordings without PRS’s licence or permission constitutes infringement of its copyright, and inviting them to acquire a licence.

The ban applies to all forms of mechanically recorded music such as records, tapes and CDs in PRS’s repertoire.

The PRS is a non-profit making organisation which collects licence fees for public performances of music and then distributes the cash among composers and music publishers. It represents the only practical way copyright fees can be collected for public performances.

A spokesperson for PRS said: “Whenever you play a sound recording in public, there are two separate licence fees to be paid. PRS distributes its licence fees to composers and music publishers and Phonographic Performance Ltd collects a separate licence fee which they distribute to record companies, recording artists and musicians.

“A licence is required for any event except a family or domestic gathering, such as a wedding reception or birthday party. PRS sometimes waives fees for charity events.”