‘I was no threat’: Patrons Joshua Holloway, Blake Smith taking legal action against Reef Casino Hotel over brutal injuries

A Cairns maritime worker and an interstate holiday-maker who wound up with nerve damage and broken wrists after nights out at the Reef Hotel Casino are taking legal action.

A CAIRNS maritime worker and an interstate holiday-maker who wound up with nerve damage and broken wrists during their removal from the Reef Hotel Casino in separate alleged incidents are taking legal action.

Redlynch’s Joshua Holloway, 42, was having a drink and a gamble with a friend one evening in October 2021.

But it ended in horrific pain.

At one point of the night, Mr Holloway was told he was not allowed back into the gaming area after grabbing a glass of scotch from the bar.

Shortly after trying to walk down the hallway to the gaming area and explain to the three bouncers who met him that he was wanting to get his mate from inside, he said the men snatched the glass from his hand and placed him in wrist locks.

“I was pretty much no threat to them at all, I wasn’t aggressive or violent, wasn’t even abusive really, and they just, one on each arm, they chicken winged me,” he said.

Joshua Holloway spent months sleeping in braces to keep his wrists straight following the incident. Picture: Peter Carruthers

Mr Holloway described the manoeuvre performed on him as bending his elbows, bending his wrists, and pulling his thumbs back.

“They ended up breaking all the nerves in both my hands and I had to go and have double carpal tunnel surgery,” Mr Holloway said.

“It was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever had in my entire life.

“I’ve had a lot of broken bones. This nerve injury was something else.”

Mr Holloway is working with Shine Lawyers’ Sandra Lim on a damages claim against Casinos Austria International (Cairns) Pty Ltd, which trades as the Pullman Reef Hotel Casino.

He only recently returned to work as a maritime captain after being out of action for a bit over nine months, having had to fork out a bit over $17,000 in medical costs.

“There’s no need for that sort of aggressiveness. I can’t comprehend why they would be like that to someone,” Mr Holloway said.

Ms Lim is also working on a separate claim with a holiday-maker whose wrists were fractured in a similar alleged incident at the casino in 2019.

Blake Anthony Smith, 29, from Sydney, is suing the casino for $399,081.45 over the September 2019 incident on a night out with his then-girlfriend.

He is claiming two security guards placed both his arms in wrist locks, fracturing them and causing long-term damage.

Ms Lim said her firm would get one or two inquiries a year from people who had been to the casino and received these types of injuries.

She also said Shine Lawyers had resolved personal injury claims against the casino for clients before.

“It seems to me that we’ve got people who are going out to the casino celebrating and they’re being injured,” she said.

“I’ve looked at the footage and we wouldn’t be progressing the claim if we didn’t think it was appropriate. In my view they weren’t being remotely aggressive and from the footage, I find it difficult to see why it was considered necessary to put them in wrist locks.

“There needs to be different ways of handling these situations without leaving patrons with significant injuries.”

Mr Smith said he and his then-girlfriend had gone out to dinner on the night of September 1, 2019, before heading to the casino for drinks.

He was playing the pokies and his girlfriend was sitting nearby, arguing with him, the claim said.

Security asked his girlfriend to leave, and when she said she was with him, they also asked him to leave.

“I asked if I could get my money out of the machine and they wouldn’t let me do that. It all happened pretty quickly,” Mr Smith said.

Mr Smith said that with one security guard on each arm, pulling them behind his back, they “basically lifted me off the ground”.

He said he felt immediate, “horrible” pain.

“I was in casts for three or four months – I couldn’t even wipe my arse,” he said.

“It was disproportionate. I didn’t do anything, I don’t think I deserved what happened. I didn’t throw a punch or anything, I wasn’t physical, wasn’t rude.”

As a result of his injuries, Mr Smith said he had to give up his job as a carpenter because he can’t use power tools anymore and was now working as a site manager.

He is claiming against the casino for unlawful trespass and battery and for personal injuries because of the casino’s negligence or breach of duty.

The casino was contacted for comment and is yet to file a defence

Originally published as ‘I was no threat’: Patrons Joshua Holloway, Blake Smith taking legal action against Reef Casino Hotel over brutal injuries