oneperth.com.au | Perth news

CHRIS THOMSON

The hip Rosemount Hotel in North Perth has applied to up its capacity to almost 1000 patrons and build a 3.6 metre-wide TV screen in its beer garden.

Documents before the City of Vincent reveal the pub, on Fitzgerald Street, plans to erect a 3.6m x 1.8m screen so it can play music videos in its soon-to-be revamped beer garden.

The Rosemount has also applied to increase its capacity from 979 to 995 punters.

CHRIS THOMSON

Bottles or drinks glasses have been used to slash bar patrons, party goers or security staff in at least five violent outbursts in and around Perth this weekend.

SUBIACO GLASSING

This morning, police spokesman Samuel Dinnison said that officers were investigating a reported glassing at the Flawless night spot in Subiaco.

Mr Dinnison said that just before 11:00pm an argument broke out between two groups of people.

The tension escalated and a man was struck to the head with a glass or bottle.

A fight then erupted between the groups and a glass was thrown at a wall and smashed, showering onlookers with shards.

Both groups were ejected from the club.

The victim was taken to hospital for treatment to several minor cuts.

FREMANTLE BOUNCERS ATTACKED

Also last night, several bouncers were allegedly assaulted at Fremantle’s Sail and Anchor Hotel.

A group of patrons was allegedly stoushing in the bar area when a bouncer stepped to them.

Mr Dinnison said the bouncer was allegedly struck to the head with a glass or bottle.

A second bouncer tried to help her colleague and she was allegedly knocked to the ground.

Police also allege that several people punched and kicked her and that two other security guards were assaulted as the group left.

Police arrested several people and investigations are continuing.

The male bouncer was taken to nearby Fremantle Hospital with minor injuries.

Police are seeking information about the condition of the female bouncer.

COODANUP PARTY VIOLENCE

In a third suburban flareup, police were called to a disturbance at the community centre in the Mandurah suburb of Coodanup.

About midnight, up to 20 people were reported to be fighting with bottles.

On arrival at the centre, police found two people had received serious injuries.

A 28-year-old man received a cut to the head after being struck with a bottle.

He also received facial injuries after being attacked by a group of people, and was taken to hospital for treatment.

A 23-year-old man was also taken to hospital with facial injuries and suspected broken ribs.

LYNWOOD RUCKUS

About 12:15am police attended the Lynwood Community Centre in Perth’s east after hearing that a mob of 50 people was fighting and bottles were being smashed in the car park.

By the time police arrived, the ruckus had finished and a group of people had returned to the centre.

About 12:50pm another call was received about 20 people blueing in a nearby street.

One person was taken to hospital with a cut to his head.

Last night’s violence follows the slashing of a 19-year-old in the neck at Joondalup’s Sovereign Arms Tavern on Friday night. The faux English pub was shut down for half an hour while police established order.

Anyone with relevant information about any of the attacks should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

STAFF REPORTER

Liquor enforcement officers shut down the Sovereign Arms Tavern in Joondalup last night after a 19-year-old man was slashed in the neck with a middy glass.

Police spokesman Samuel Dinnison said that about 10:45pm the young man and a second person bumped into each other while entering the main bar area.

Mr Dinnison said that the pair exchanged words and the 19-year-old was struck to the neck with the half-pint glass.

The glass smashed causing several cuts, and the teen was struck a second time with the smashed glass.

Mr Dinnison said the man was also punched several times in the face, which caused a tooth to be dislodged.

Bouncers intervened and the man was taken to Joondalup Hospital by St John Ambulance.

His assailant was a tanned, slim male between 20 and 30 years old and 165 to 175cm tall.

Liquor enforcement officers closed the faux English pub while order was regained.

Half an hour later the bar was allowed to reopen. However, the area where the attack took place remained closed to the public.

Anyone who witnessed the violence should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

STAFF REPORTER

The owner of the Venezia Restaurant in Pier Street, Perth, is being prosecuted for allegedly underpaying two kitchen staff a total of $78,000.

Facing Court is owner-manager Vincenzo Salvatore Todaro.

The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges Mr Todaro was personally involved in underpaying a cook $53,635 and a kitchen-hand $24,419 between March, 2006 and December, 2007.

The workers, an immigrant husband-and-wife from China who spoke little English, were hired at the restaurant through VST Pty Ltd, a company operated by Mr Todaro.

The workers successfully sued VST in 2010, securing orders in the WA Industrial Magistrates Court for outstanding entitlements to be back-paid, including the $78,054.

The court found the two had regularly been paid less than $10 an hour, leading to them each being underpaid hundreds of dollars a week.

However, soon after the court ruling, VST ceased trading and ownership was transferred to a new company, also owned by Mr Todaro.

This left the two workers unable to secure back-payment from VST.

The Ombudsman is now asking the WA Industrial Magistrates Court to find that Mr Todaro was personally involved in the underpayments.

If successful, the Ombudsman will ask the Court to impose penalties against Mr Todaro and to order that the penalties be paid to the two workers to help rectify the underpayment.

The Ombudsman alleges Mr Todaro was involved in 10 contraventions of workplace laws.

The maximum potential penalty per contravention is $6600.

Photo: Saša Prosen

CHRIS THOMSON

Mt Lawley’s swank Malt Supper Club – co-owned by former Fremantle Docker Peter Bell – may yet agree to renovate its blank, green facade to the satisfaction of the local council that believes it is an eyesore.

In November last year, City of Stirling councillors unanimously snatched back an olive branch offered to Bell and his partners by the council’s planners.

Back then, oneperth.com.au revealed that secret discussions between the planners and Malt had led to a handshake deal that the club instal openable windows to Beaufort Street to improve its appearance.

However, the city’s councillors refused to approve the deal, which sent the matter back to the State Administrative Tribunal where it had already languished for some months.

The planners had initially urged legal action against law graduate Bell and his colleagues over what the city saw as a failure to develop Malt in line with its 2010 planning approval.

The planners had believed the facade of the club detracted from the ambience of upmarket Beaufort Street.

Now, the tribunal has booted the matter back to the city. Bell has agreed to instal a different set of openable windows, and the planners have again recommended the compromise be approved.

The matter will be debated – yet again – by the city’s planning committee on Monday night.

The inside of Malt Supper Club is bedecked with chandeliers and plush wallpaper.

The venue became a favoured haunt of social climbers after it was allowed to open in November 2010 after another tortuous planning wrangle with the city.

Bell and his partners reportedly lost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to the delay in the bar’s opening.

CHRIS THOMSON

A cold case investigation has seen a Port Kennedy man and woman charged over a fire that burnt down the Kwolyin State Hotel west of Bruce Rock in February 1992.

The 67-year-old Port Kennedy man was last week charged with one count of criminal damage by fire and one count of fraud.

He will appear in Northam Magistrates Court on February 6.

The 59-year-old woman, also of Port Kennedy, was arrested yesterday and charged with one count of fraud.

She will appear in Northam Magistrates Court on February 27.

Police spokeswoman Naomi Smith said the fire destroyed the hotel and had been deemed to be caused by human hands.

Acting sergeant Smith said the case was reviewed in June 2011 and later re-opened after new evidence was discovered.

The gutted hotel, built in 1914, was demolished in 1992 after the blaze. Its site was added to the Shire of Bruce Rock heritage list in 1997.

CHRIS THOMSON

After months of town planning wrangles with the City of Vincent, owners of a mooted North Perth saloon called The Classroom have been granted a much-prized small bar licence.

Chef Daniel Sterpini (left) and bartender Adam Keane had the usual hassles getting their bar plans through the city, with urban planners initially resisting the idea due to a purported lack of parking.

However, after oneperth.com.au revealed the planners’ reticence, Sterpini and Keane withdrew their application, amended it, and the bureaucrats had a change of heart.

The duo’s liquor licence application promised the Charles Street cafe-cum-bar would educate patrons on fine dining and drink.

In keeping with this educative theme, The Classroom will allow Parents’  and Citizens’ committees of local schools to sell fundraising cakes from the premises.

The venue will include a children’s play area to provide respite for visiting mothers, and feature recycled school furniture.

The owners believe the pictured furniture will create a “fun and inviting trip down memory lane for customers and locals alike”.

Nevertheless, Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan lobbed in his now-obligatory objection, claiming that if the application were granted “public disorder or disturbance would be likely to result”.

Liquor Licesing director Barry Sargeant disagreed, concluding a small bar licence would be in the public interest.

The new license will allow The Classroom to operate from 7am to midnight Mondays to Saturdays, and between 10am and 10pm on Sundays.

CHRIS THOMSON

The Old Brewery restaurant on Mounts Bay Road has uttered the ‘D’ word to boost its bid to become a tavern.

A tavern licence application lodged by Old Brewery general manager Greg Farnan notes that “Perth had been described as ‘Dullsville’”.

“We believe we are addressing this misnomer by seeking to provide an improved, more flexible and diverse, more complete service to our guests,” Mr Farnan submits.

The term ‘Dullsville’ is now much maligned as a descriptor of Perth where small bars, music festivals and ferris wheels are popping up all over the place.

Mr Farnan wants to replace his venue’s restaurant licence with a tavern licence so some of its average 200 patrons a day can enjoy a drink without having to eat a meal.

“We have many patrons ask for an alcoholic beverage without a meal which is, due to our licence, denied them,” Mr Farnan’s application explains.

“These people simply want a quiet drink and are not in the least bit interested in complexities and restrictions of our licence.

“The denial and subsequent attempt at an explanation more often than not provokes (sic) a reaction of frustration and a less than empathetic ‘walk out’.”

The Old Brewery restaurant was founded in 2007 on the ground floor of the historic building of the defunct Swan Brewery.

oneperth.com.au gave the restaurant a glowing review about a year ago.

STAFF REPORTER

Dogs and horses were deployed and a police officer injured when “50 to 60″ bikies and their associates were ejected from a Cockburn hotel last night.

Police spokesman Neil Blair said that about 7.30pm police were called to The Gate Bar and Bistro in the suburb of Success.

Inspector Blair said that 50 to 60 members and associates of the Rebels bikie club were asked to leave.

Once outside the hotel, several of the ejected congregated, and police dogs and horses were deployed to help disperse them.

A police officer received minor injuries in an ensuing scuffle and was taken to Fremantle Hospital.

A 36-year-old Henderson man man was charged with two counts of assaulting a public officer, and one of obstructing police. He will appear in Fremantle Magistrates Court on January 20.

A 19-year-old Waikiki man was charged with assault causing bodily harm to a public officer. He will appear in Perth Magistrates Court today.

CHRIS THOMSON

A 19-year-old duty manager sat down, wrongfully accused of dining with customers, and forced to resign will receive a payout from an award-winning Hog’s Breath Cafe.

In a written decision today, Fair Work Australia Commissioner Bruce Williams ordered Hog’s Breath’s Mindarie outlet to pay sacked manager Rebecca Johnston the equivalent of four week’s salary.

On March 1 last year, restaurant managing director Miles Wood and manager Sheona Richards met with Ms Johnston who had toiled at the diner for 18 months.

During the meeting, Ms Johnston was accused of dining with customers, eating while on duty and re-rostering staff without permission.

Before her superiors, Ms Johnston admitted she had taken a bite of garlic bread from food a colleague had ordered but that this occurred in the cool room out of sight of customers.

She told Mr Wood that everybody ate on shift, even Ms Richards.

Mr Wood told Ms Johnston her explanations were unacceptable and presented her with two written disciplinary notices.

He then said he could no longer trust her as duty manager and presented an ultimatum – take a demotion to waitress on less pay and with fewer hours, or resign.

Ms Johnston fell on her sword and was handed a letter of resignation Mr Wood had prepared earlier – which she signed.

At the hearing, the restaurant conceded Ms Johnston was forced to resign and for the purposes of the relevant law had been sacked.

Commissioner Williams noted Ms Johnston was not warned about unsatisfactory performance before she was fired.

He concluded the sacking was unreasonable and found Ms Johnston had been unfairly dismissed.

Ms Johnston earned no money for eight weeks after being fired, but Commissioner Williams noted some of her actions were “wrong”. So her compensation was reduced to one month’s pay.

On the garlic bread front, Commissioner Williams heard Ms Johnston’s offence was at the lowest end of the scale. He accepted no customer had seen her eating and she had ingested very little.

“I think in all the circumstances the respondent has exaggerated the seriousness of [Ms Johnston's] actions in this regard,” he found.

He noted Ms Johnston was wrong to make roster changes requested by staff without authority to do so, but balanced this against her young age and supervision experience amounting to just 16 days.

On the dining with customers allegation, Ms Johnston successfully argued she had told Mr wood it was a birthday party for another staff member and he had told her she could sit at their table when most customers had gone.

In 2011, the eatery was awarded “best family restaurant in Perth” by the WA Restaurant and Catering Association.