landlord suspended after row
01 January 2000
Vaux Breweries has suspended a pub landlord for allegedly trying to strangle one of his customers.
The brewery confirmed that a relief manager has taken over from publican Nicol Smith at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in St Helens Street, Corbridge, after police were called to a disturbance in the bar of the Northumberland pub.
The alleged incident involved Smith and a Wheatsheaf regular, 28-year-old Ken Johnson, who suffered scratches to his neck. Johnson has declined to press charges, but Vaux Breweries has launched its own investigation.
Smith - who was last year rapped by an industrial tribunal for sex discrimination at his former pub in Newcastle - has been barred from entering the Wheatsheaf.
