Pub Charity CEO Martin Cheer says the Rawene Masonic Hotel's pokie machines were disabled due to late banking of proceeds. Photo / File
Pub Charity CEO Martin Cheer says the Rawene Masonic Hotel's pokie machines were disabled due to late banking of proceeds. Photo / File
The owners of the Rawene Masonic Hotel and the Pub Charity trust are embroiled in a war of words over what led to the removal of pokie machines from the Far North venue.
The hotel's owners posted on Facebook on May 26 that the pub would no longer have pokies in the venue after a woman left a baby alone outside the previous week while she gambled.
But Martin Cheer, chief executive of Pub Charity which owns the machines, said the pokies were disabled due to the late banking of proceeds five days before the post on the pub's Facebook page.
Cheer provided documents and correspondence to the Northern Advocate showing the machines were disabled on May 21 after a written request from Pub Charity staff.
In a statement via their lawyer, David Garrett, Glen Dick and Lana Turnbull stood by their original story.
"Glen and Lana categorically deny that the pokie machines in the Masonic were deactivated prior to the incident with the female gambler which saw Glen evict the woman from the hotel because she had left a crying baby outside on the kerb.
Glen Dick and Lana Turnbull, owners of the Rawene Masonic Hotel, say the venue's pokie machines were deactivated at their request. Photo / File
"They say the machines were deactivated at their request some days later – perhaps more than a week later - after they had discussed the negative effect of the machines."
Pub Charity has failed to find any footage of the alleged incident on CCTV cameras they operated in the venue's gaming room in the three weeks prior to the disabling of the machines.
"[Glen Dick] had no interaction with a player that resulted in them leaving the room," Cheer said.
He said the alleged incident had not been reported to Pub Charity.
"We would normally require such an incident to be reported to us," Cheer said. "That woman needs to be referred to support services."
The interim CCTV report stated that Dick only went into the gaming room to turn the machines on and off, remove cash from note acceptors and to use the machines himself, Cheer said.
The examination of the CCTV was continuing, and, as the date of alleged incident was uncertain, would now cover seven weeks of footage.
"We're continuing to extend our review of the footage," Cheer said, adding, "I'm happy to be proven wrong."
Cheer said proceeds from the venue's machines were banked late three times in 2018.
Proceeds were required by law to be banked within five days, and one late payment was not received until the ninth day, four days past the deadline, according to Cheer.
The pokie machines being removed from Rawene Masonic Hotel. Photo / Supplied
Garrett's statement said there were two, not three, incidents of late banking and his clients had explanations for both.
"Glen and Lana admit that on two occasions only, both of them well prior to the event in question, they were late banking pokie machine money, on one occasion 24 hours late, and on the other perhaps 36 hours late.
"I am satisfied that on both occasions there are entirely satisfactory explanations for those late bankings. That notwithstanding, Glen and Lana accept that these errors should not have occurred, and they regret them. "
The statement also said Dick and Turnbull were owed $493 by Pub Charity.
Dick told the Advocate on May 28 the young woman left the baby in a capsule on the ground outside the entrance to the pub, which led to the decision to get rid of pokies.
He said at the time it was not the first time children had been left alone while parents used the pokies, and there had been three or four incidents where school-age children had been left in cars.
In 2011, a woman who left her 10-month-old in a car in Whangārei while she played the pokies in a pub across the street ended up in court.
