Amid rising alcohol-related issues in the region, the operator of Orange’s BJ Paterson’s Sport Bar has been evicted and bashed.
On Monday 20 June the pub’s front window displayed a Notice by solicitors Whiteley, Ironside & Shillington outlining unpaid rent and bills by the leaseholder totalling around $25,000.
Luke McMahon’s McMahon Hotels P/L took on the lease last October, and quickly found problems with patron behaviour, telling the Central Western Daily he and the nearby Hotel Orange needed to band together and use technology such as linked ID scanners to ban trouble-makers.
“We need more communication,” Mr McMahon said.
But the trouble didn’t stop there, with reported disputes with the owners of the property, Dino and Michael Cunial, about “essential internal works” needed on the building.
This brought about a standoff and refusal to pay that saw the locks changed and solicitors Notice regarding a month’s overdue rent of $13,295 and three months’ outgoings totalling $11,525.
Closure of the venue sees 25 local employees, including 16 full-time, out of work.
On the following Thursday night (23 June) McMahan was at the Orange City Bowling Club when two men reportedly followed him into the men’s room, where he was bashed, losing five teeth and sustaining jaw injuries.
Police attended the scene, and Canobolas Local Area Crime Commander Inspector Bruce Grassick reported they were investigating, and that they understood one of the men was known to McMahon, who himself suggested it related to (former) employees claiming they had not been paid their full salaries and entitlements.
“Everyone has or will be paid their entitlements and all the superannuation is up to date,” he advised.
McMahon told the local paper he has business interests in both Brisbane and Sydney, where he will be returning.
He says he will not be opening another entertainment venue in Orange.
Meanwhile, the husband and wife proprietors of the Hotel Orange have gotten into home-grown trouble. The man pleaded guilty in Parkes Local Court to three offences relating to his hydroponic cannabis growing set-up. After considerable surveillance, police executed a search warrant at a property rented by the 34-year-old and found 35 plants in a commercial cultivation arrangement, valued at around $140,000.
He appeared again in Parramatta District Court in June and received an ‘intensive corrections order’ requiring him to serve a sentence outside of prison, under strict Corrective Services NSW supervision and continue sessions with a psychologist.
Prior to its brief stint as BJ Paterson’s, the hotel was known as Biddy Walsh’s Irish Pub. It had been closed and unoccupied for several years before that, after a period when known as the Standard Hotel.
