The former licensee and part owner of a Sydney bar has received convictions and a life ban from the industry for a violent assault on two people he was drinking with after hours.
John Quinlan, 59, is the former co-owner of JD’s Bar and Grill in Cronulla, and was licensee between May 2004 and January 2020.
In October 2019 he was drinking heavily at the venue after closing with a man and woman, eventually carrying them downstairs.
At some point things turned sour and Quinlan attacked them. CCTV footage showed him stomping the man’s head, shoving the woman into a wall, and punching them as they lay on the stairs. Both were seriously injured and had to be hospitalised. The man sustained fractured ribs and facial injuries.
Liquor and Gaming chief executive Anthony Keon called the protracted assault a “shocking display of violence”.
“For some reason, an altercation occurred and Mr Quinlan for 15 minutes assaulted in a very vicious, undisciplined way to the point they were seriously injured and required hospitalisation,” said Philip Crawford, from the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA).
Early 2018 Quinlan and JD’s were denied an extension to an expired trial of 3am trading on weekends.
The reason given was that police linked the venue with 17 violence-related incidents over seven years, but Quinlan was quoted as saying there had been only two major incidents of violence in his 14 years operating the bar.
Between mid-2018 and the incident late 2019, he subsequently received eight penalty notices from NSW Police. Six of these were for breaches of the venue’s liquor licence conditions.
Following the assault incident, the next month ILGA suspended his RSA competency card for a year. In March 2020 Sutherland Local Court issued an Apprehended Personal Violence Order against him for two years, to protect the two patrons.
Another month later, he was convicted in that Court on two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, for which he was sentenced to a prison term of nine months and a community correction order of two and a half years.
The following August, ILGA imposed a strike against Quinlan for the prescribed offence of permitting intoxication on licensed premises.
In March 2021 he made a submission to the Authority, explaining he was under extreme financial and psychological pressure trying to keep the business profitable, at the time of the incident in late 2019.
The submission cited his lack of prior history in alcohol-related incidents in nearly 40 years in hospitality, suggesting the behaviour was “aberrational”, and requesting the Authority consider the self-help measures he has undertaken, including regular sessions with a psychologist and participation in a support group, giving him insight into alcohol abuse.
Although not specifically defined in the Act, the term a ‘fit and proper person’ derives from common law and normally requires the three characteristics of “honesty, knowledge and ability” (Hughes & Vale P/L v NSW (No 2) (1955)).
This week the newly formed NSW Department of Enterprise Investment and Trade, encompassing the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, issued details that Quinlan was found to be unfit to hold a liquor licence, manage a licensed premises or be the close associate of a licensee.
Such a life ban has only been issued to two other publicans in the past five years.
Quinlan no longer holds ownership share or works at JD’s Bar and Grill.
“He’s out of the industry, but a life ban will make sure he doesn’t come back,” concluded Crawford.
