The owners of a bar in Paceville have been ordered to pay compensation of €25,000 to the overlying hotel owners because of loud music from the establishmens after 1am.

The court case was instituted by the Gorgianis Hotel against the joint owners of Bar Native and Bar Haze.

The hotel's owners argued that they had lost considerable business because of the intolerable loud music from the bars, and had also incurred costs for sound proofing.

Anton Dougall and other hotel officials testified how loud music had forced hotel guests to cancel bookings or to move out.

They produced noise tests taken by an independent consultant and recordings from the reception desk.

A court expert confirmed that the loud music came from the bars.

The court declared that the hotel had been unable to prove it lost a €30,000 contract by a Romanian group and saw another contract of  €110,000 cancelled by a language school.

Nor had it been sufficiently proved that the hotel had had to close some of his guest rooms, immediately above Bar Native, because of the loud music.

Nonetheless, the court said there was sufficient evidence that the amplified music from Bar Native was in breach of regulations and caused serious disturbance for the hotel.

It therefore ordered payment of €25,000 in compensation.