A case officer from the NSW Department of Liquor, Gaming and
Racing assigned to the investigation has interviewed a number of past and
current directors and employees over alleged breaches, which could lead to the
cancellation of the club licence, and he has also called for documentation to
justify a leagues club decision to buy back floor space at the Redfern property
for six times the price Holmes a Court and Crowe paid.
South Sydney members complain they have not been able to
enjoy a beer at their club for nearly two years, while celebrities – including
Lara Bingle and Michael Clarke,
Lleyton and Bec Hewitt, then deputy prime minister Mark Vaile, Channel Nine
personality Eddie McGuire, Leo Sayer, Major Michael
Mori (lawyer who represented David Hicks) and Firepower executives – sat in
corporate boxes at ANZ Stadium to watch the team.
Special Inspector (Enforcement) Nicholas Smyth said the
investigation focuses on the issue of free membership of the leagues club to
signed-up Rabbitohs supporters and the use of the liquor licence to supply
alcohol at Homebush
Bay, while he is also
inquiring whether club members’ interests had been served since a developer
bought into the Chalmers Street
building.
“I’m doing an investigation to ensure the leagues club
complies with the Registered Clubs Act, whereas the football club, which is 75
per cent owned by Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court, is something I don’t
deal with at all,” Smyth said.
The problem, according to one former director of the club,
Larry Agius, is that the celebrity owners of the Rabbitohs deal with the
difference, although Holmes a Court ceased any active role with the club
earlier this year following a falling out with Crowe. “They find it
difficult to draw a line between the two clubs – the leagues club and the
football club,” Agius said, confirming he had been questioned by Smyth
last week.
“The investigation is whether liquor has been bought
via the leagues club account and sold through the football club.”
A former general manager of the leagues club, Chuck
Driscoll, said he had also been interviewed by the case officer. “They
can’t use the leagues club liquor licence at Homebush,” he said. “It
can only be used at 265 Chalmers
Street, Redfern.”
However, the chairman of South Sydney Leagues Club, Bill Alexiou-Hucker,
said he had met Smyth and explained the football club bought and sold the
liquor, while the supplier invoiced the leagues club.
“The department’s concern was only that certain members
were entitled to free alcohol and others were not,” he said, explaining
that all members were welcome to purchase entry to corporate areas at ANZ
stadium, where sponsors’ liquor is available. A spokesman for the stadium said
it was widespread practice for hirers to supply sponsors’ products at the
venue.
Driscoll, who resigned in December 2006, said the more
serious concern was the issue of free membership because it made a mockery of
the election of office bearers.
Three thousand Rabbitohs fans became new leagues club
members for season 2008 without paying a fee following Holmes a Court’s demand
he be allowed to offer free memberships to ticketed members of his football
club. Rule 30 (1) (j) of the Registered Clubs Act is very specific: “The
fee payable by, or by any class of, ordinary members for membership of the club
shall be an amount, not being less than $2 per annum … “
Alexiou-Hucker
conceded this was illegal under the Act and punishable by anything from a
reprimand to cancellation of the licence, admitting they had breached the
legislation.
“You are not allowed to issue free memberships,” Alexiou-Hucker said. “This is an oversight by
the board.”
However, he insisted Holmes a Court’s free membership
initiative had come after the board had already extended this concession to all
members. “Peter’s offer of free membership came after we had already
granted this to all members in good faith because we didn’t have a club.”
It is understood a former employee of the football club has
confirmed to Smyth that a warning was given that free memberships were illegal.
“It makes the election of office bearers null and
void,” Driscoll said. “The whole thing smells.”
Yet Alexiou-Hucker
said everything had to be minuted. “We are under such close scrutiny, we
have to be squeaky clean,” Alexiou-Hucker
said.
Club members ask how the election of office bearers could
have proceeded when the Registered Clubs Act requires the names of candidates
be displayed “in a conspicuous place on the premises of the club”. South Sydney doesn’t have a notice board, let alone a
club in which to conspicuously hang anything. “The whole thing is a
farce,” said former director Agius.
Alexiou-Hucker
has also conceded the Department of Liquor, Gaming and Racing had called for
three independent valuations of 1000 square metres of additional space required
to house 60 poker machines following a vote by members to abandon Holmes a
Court’s “no pokies” policy.
The leagues club has agreed to pay $6.15m for an area sold
to Holmes a Court and Crowe 18 months earlier for $1m. “People are upset
the administrator sold 11,000 square metres for $13m and now we are paying over
$6m for a bit over 1000 square metres, but I tell them they’re going to get a
triple A building when it’s finished,” Alexiou-Hucker
said.
Souths members point out $3m for a fit-out of their new club
was included in the purchase price and because construction hasn’t commenced 19
months on, this money has been retained by the owners earning interest, rather
than deposited in the leagues club account.
Another club member and former policeman, Paul Miles, has
also been interviewed by the Department of Liquor, Gaming and Racing.
“When Holmes a Court and Crowe rode into town on white
horses to take over the club, the then chairman, Nicholas Pappas, boasted that
he’d delivered on his promise ‘to bring in the big end of town’, Miles said,
disappointed he hasn’t had a beer at Redfern while celebrities can sip bubbly
at Homebush Bay.
“Two years on we fear they meant the big ending.”