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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Navigator restaurant at the Yellowknife airport will no longer be able to serve alcohol as the co-owner was disqualified Tuesday from holding a liquor licence.

Brad Baker, 36, co-owner of the Navigator, showed up for the NWT Liquor Licensing Board hearing at the Explorer Hotel on Tuesday but left before the hearing was over. He initially said he wanted to surrender his liquor licence but refused after being asked by board chair Don Kindt to put it in writing.

"I don't want to submit anything into evidence without my legal counsel," said Baker. He added he did not receive notice in time to obtain a lawyer.

"The board can go ahead and have a show cause hearing in your absence," Kindt said to Baker before he left the proceedings.

Kindt said the board felt proper notice had been given to Baker and proceeded with the hearing in his absence.

Baker was arrested on Dec. 23 in relation to a cocaine-trafficking investigation involving the Navigator restaurant. He was charged with trafficking cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking after RCMP seized approximately a kilogram of cocaine from the restaurant.

Darren Pickup, the lawyer representing the government's licensing and enforcement division, said since Baker had been charged with trafficking offences under the Criminal Code he was no longer eligible under the NWT Liquor Act to hold a liquor licence.

"A licence holder must continue to meet the same conditions as when originally approved for the licence," said Pickup.

The board agreed that Baker was disqualified and cancelled his liquor licence for the Navigator restaurant.

Also on Tuesday morning Sam's Monkey Tree was fined $4,500 and will be closed March 4 to 9 after the bar was found guilty of selling alcohol to intoxicated persons and allowing liquor to be taken off the establishment's premises.