By Jonathan Sutton - Local Democracy Reporter

A pensioner who broke coronavirus lockdown rules by serving wine and mince pies at a shooting club has been jailed after attempting to destroy evidence.

Maurice Snelling was the licence holder of Cloudside Shooting Grounds when residents raised concerns about the club between Congleton and Rushton Spencer breaching Tier 3 Covid rules in 2020. Under the regulations, venues were only allowed to operate takeaway, delivery and drive through services and customers were not permitted to consume food and drink on the premises.

But Snelling, of Cloudside, had claimed the club was in Tier 2 – which allowed customers to consume alcohol inside a venue if drinks were accompanied by a 'substantial meal' – because it has a CW12 Cheshire postcode despite actually being within Staffordshire.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard Snelling did not respond to both emailed and written requests by Staffordshire Police to review CCTV footage. The 72-year-old then contacted Cloudside's CCTV contractor, Welch Services, to ask for the hard drive to be removed from the system as the police closed in.

Prosecutor Ben Lawrence said: "Mr Snelling was angry and demanding."

The court heard Welch Services then contacted the police on January 18, 2021 to say the defendant might claim that the CCTV footage was damaged after a leak had occurred. Welch Services felt uncomfortable with the demands and made a copy of the CCTV and passed it on to officers.

Snelling, who only spoke to confirm his name, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing.

Thomas Sherrington, mitigating, said: "My client is a man who is 72 and for many years ran a successful business and genuinely believed that the premises fell into Cheshire.

"This has tarnished his reputation. He believed he was targeted by neighbours and this built up resentment of a man with good character."

Mr Sherrington added that since the proceedings started his client's health had decline and he had suffered multiple heart attacks. He added: "The prognosis is grim."

But Circuit Judge David Fletcher rejected the defence lawyer's claim that Snelling did not know the club was in Staffordshire – and not Cheshire – as he had lived in the area for 30 years and in that time his bins had been emptied by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.

He said: "I find it hard to believe that Mr Snelling didn't know which lockdown tier he was in. This offence strikes at the heart of justice.

"[He is] anti-establishment, especially to the police. He doesn't like being told what to do. He treated police with resentment."

The judge sentenced Snelling to six months in prison.