MAFS ‘star’ gets booze warning
Reality TV contestant could face ban after licence mixup, by Andrea Vance.
Married at First Sight contestant Dave McClelland has fallen foul of alcohol laws, after being accused of forging paperwork to sell cocktails.
McClelland was warned by police last year, after he tried to get approval to hawk pre-mixed espresso martinis at a lifestyle expo in Christchurch.
Sources say the pre-charge warning means he is likely to be barred from holding an alcohol licence.
But an unrepentant McClelland, from Dunedin, said that won’t affect his booze business – and he has lashed out at cops, Christchurch City Council and Horncastle Arena staff over the incident.
He was given the written warning from police alcohol harm prevention officer Sergeant Ian Paulin after staff at the arena became suspicious about documents presented by McClelland’s Luxe Brew NZ company.
Concerned they were fraudulent, the staff called in police. McClelland said arena staff were ‘‘uppity.’’
And he criticised Paulin. ‘‘This guy Paulin, if he had his way noone would be drinking alcohol at all. I can see why the police would love to have him because he’s obviously passionate about stopping shit.’’
McClelland, 44, blamed the council’s ‘‘archaic’’ licensing regime for his legal woes. ‘‘Christchurch makes it almost not worth it because of a system that is just rubbish ... [they] are the worst council in the whole of New Zealand to deal with, they do not accept payments or applications online. They make it extremely difficult for anyone to obtain special event liquor licences.’’
McClelland says he had permission to sell at a home show at the arena in April but also wanted a stall at a caravan expo around the same time. Each time he wants a stall at an event, the company must apply to the local council for a special event licence.
‘‘I did it the wrong way. Because of my filming [MAFS] and what I was doing at the time, I had to get someone else to put the paperwork through.
‘‘I sent the wrong ones through for the wrong event and they tried to accuse me of trying to forge a document to enter a show ... I dropped the ball.’’
McClelland gets around the ban by getting staff to hold special licences for each event, which is legit.
‘‘I don’t need to hold a licence . . . we have duty managers who do that for us,’’ he explained.
McClelland found fame on the second season of the reality TV show last year, after being paired with Julia Malley, 32, but the partnership didn’t last.
A spokesman for police said: ‘‘Anyone who is issued with a precharge warning has a right to privacy and on this basis we are not in a position to answer your specific questions. A pre-charge warning is a lawful alternative to prosecution for some minor offenders.’’