11 hours ago
Beer, EFTPOS turned off in Coogee Diggers' Club legal fight
A Coogee Diggers' Club restaurateur will have her day in court on Friday when an arbitration tribunal determines whether the businesswoman should be permitted to continue trading at her recently opened cafe/restaurant.
Tina Plessas, proprietor of Cece's cafe/restaurant, is fighting to have the terms of her original contract with the Diggers Club – which is in dispute – upheld and honoured after the club moved to 'forcibly evict' her without notice last month.
Ms Plessas alleges Coogee Diggers has violated interim orders made by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) on June 4 granting her the right to resume trading without interference until the June 27 hearing date.
The businesswoman alleges the club has acted hostilely by twice turning off her beer supply, changing the restaurant lock, removing tables, introducing party restrictions including a dance and cake 'ban' and contacting her suppliers to request they close her accounts.
With a week of trading to go, at the weekend the club disconnected Mr Plessas' EFTPOS facilities.
'It's been a nerve-racking time for myself and my team,' Ms Plessas said told 'We are all walking on eggshells as we don't know when (we) will discover the next act of sabotage.
'My staff and I just want to get on and serve the community and look after our loyal customers and the club members who have supported us. We truly love the community and if we didn't feel our services were appreciated by them I wouldn't continue fighting to remain.'
In addition, a frustrated Ms Plessas told the management style of the club's CEO Peter Gallagher had made serving her customers a daily battle.
Ms Plessas' fight for professional survival at the club began when the Diggers' CEO abruptly terminated her catering agreement on May 30 and evicted her.
Weeks earlier, in March, she had enthusiastically opened the doors to her cafe/restaurant after recruiting 15 of her best former chefs to join her.
This came after she was awarded the lease for the Diggers Club's lavishly renovated new downstairs eatery in 2024.
According to Ms Plessas, in dispute are two catering contracts the club sent her, one of which stipulated she could trade rent free for the first three-months while establishing her business. An attempt was made in a second contract to delete that clause.
The plucky businesswoman claims she has been subjected to a sustained campaign of alleged bullying and intimidation at the club – including attempting to smear her reputation – by attempting to evict her and disrupt her new business.
On Thursday the club, through a lawyer, denied the allegations.
'Coogee Diggers is aware of a number of false claims that have recently been made and strongly rejects any suggestion of misconduct or improper behaviour by the club's leadership team,' a spokesman said in a statement.
'The club categorically denies any suggestion of noncompliance with NCAT. These allegations are baseless and no findings of breach have been made by NCAT. Coogee Diggers strongly denies the suggestion it has deliberately obstructed the operations of Cece's.'
Ms Plessas believes she is a victim of her own success having taken in the ballpark of $120,000 at Cece's in her first full month of trading in April.
According to club sources, Coogee Diggers is under pressure to increase profits after taking out huge bank loans to finance Mr Gallagher's grand vision of creating a premium gym and bar precinct at the 90-year-old community centre.
The building work, for a ground floor renovation, cost in excess of $6 million and may, say sources, run as high as $8 million.
A hefty, short-term loan with the Commonwealth Bank for $3 million is due for repayment later this year.
A second loan, for $1.6 million, was also still on the books in December 2024 when the club released its annual report.
One former board director and ex president has called for a forensic audit to be conducted to show club members how the money has been spent.
