Boutique Pub Co, the firm behind failed Toowoomba pub, The Florence Public House, has gone bust

One of the last intact vestiges of failed publican Mic Uebergang has gone under after dramatic final months of trade that included tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

BOUTIQUE BUST

One of the last intact vestiges of the failed hospitality empire overseen by one-time southeast Queensland publican Mic Uebergang has finally gone under.

Uebergang and his business partner, Karl Voll, pulled the plug this week on their Boutique Pub Co Pty Ltd, tapping SV Partners operative Anne Meagher to serve as liquidator.

It follows the collapse of Uebergang’s solely owned Thirsty Occasions group in late 2019 with more than $2m in debts. Nearly 80 unsecured creditors clawed nothing back from the wreckage even as he zipped around in a new Mercedes-Benz X250D.

Boutique Pub Co traded as The Florence Public House, which opened in Toowoomba with a bit of fanfare in mid-2018 but closed for a “temporary’’ freshen up in August 2019 that actually proved to be permanent.

Mic Uebergang at Dalgety Public House.

Just a month earlier, the company had been fined $40,000 for selling alcohol at The Florence without a licence or permit. Agents with the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation found that nearly $178,000 worth of booze had been illegally sold over a four-month period starting from its launch.

The same oversight emerged simultaneously at another Uebergang venue, the now-defunct Brisbane venue Oxford Gardens, which was run by Thirsty Occasions.

The company was slapped with a $50,000 fine in July 2019 for selling alcohol illegally at the Bulimba-based establishment. OLGR staff discovered that almost $355,000 worth of drinks had been served there without any licence or permit.

Thirsty Occasions also operated Dalgety Public House in the historic woolstore building at the corner of Macquarie and Florence streets in Teneriffe.

As was the case at the Florence, Uebergang shut Dalgety on a “temporary’’ basis in May 2019 but it never traded again under his watch. Five months later a supplier won court orders to wind up Thirsty Occasions.

In a report to creditors, David Hambleton alleged that the company traded while insolvent and there were “unreasonable director-related transactions’’ but no court actions flowed from these claims.

Dalgety reopened under new ownership in July last year.

Uebergang, who formerly chaired the Teneriffe Festival, denied that Thirsty Occasions had traded improperly or committed other breaches but declined to comment further Friday. Voll could not be contacted.

ILL-FATED TILT

Two Toowoomba area graziers have come to grief with an ill-fated tilt into the world of engineering.

Business partners Clayton Sargood and David Mackenzie appointed administrators to their Eco-Civil Solutions (Qld) Pty Ltd last month after it suffered losses primarily on the $13m Charleston Dam project under construction in central north Queensland.

Creditors owed more than $650,000 tipped the Cairns-based company into liquidation Friday after learning they will get nothing back.

Phil Cassell.

Eco-Civil, which had only been acquired from founder Phil Cassell in 2019, operated as part of a larger group controlled by Sargood and Mackenzie.

It included N.Q. Civil Engineering Contracting Pty Ltd, a labour and equipment hire business they bought in 2016. That firm went bust early last year with debts of nearly $6m.

BDO’s Todd Kelly, who is winding up the two companies, alleges in reports to creditors that they both traded while insolvent and committed other breaches. No court action has resulted.

Sargood, who runs Clayton’s Organic Beef, did not return calls seeking comment. Mackenzie could not be contacted.