Pink Panther busted in $1000 plus back-to-back sales without checking BDR

The owner of Larrimah’s world famous Pink Panther pub has been hauled before the Liquor Commission after selling up to $1300 worth of grog to individual customers in back-to-back transactions.

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THE owner of Larrimah’s world famous Pink Panther pub has been hauled before the Liquor Commission after selling up to $1300 worth of grog to individual customers in back-to-back transactions.

The Liquor Commission heard the pub had failed to scan customers’ IDs before selling them alcohol on 144 occasions, the majority of which were sales to repeat customers who had already been scanned that day.

Chairman Richard Coates said while that was “not a hanging offence”, a “more disturbing” issue was “a series of suspicious transactions” indicative of secondary supply to banned drinkers.

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Mr Coates said on one occasion on November 11, a customer bought four bottles of whiskey, three bottles of rum and 30 cans of beer in five separate transactions within the space of six minutes.

Pink Panther Hotel owner Steve Baldwin leaves the Liquor Commission hearing on Wednesday.

On November 2, another man bought two slabs of beer, five bottles of spirits and a six pack of cider within a period of eight minutes, paying for the haul in cash.

“(It appears that) what’s occurring under your nose and you should have been aware of it, is that secondary supply’s going on,” he said.

“We don’t want Larrimah to become a honey pot for problem drinkers.”

In response, pub owner Steve Baldwin said the multiple sales could be explained by the fact that his mostly Indigenous customers “don’t know how much money they’ve got” and planned to drink the grog themselves.

“Just because you can come in and you know you’ve got $1000 and you know that you can buy all these things and you go to Woolies and you add it all up and it comes to $700 and you know you can do it — these guys cannot, they can’t do the math,” he said.

“He’s got his bundle of money and he’s spent that and he sees he’s got some left and he goes again, he sees he’s got some left and he goes again, he can’t work it all out in one lot.”

Mr Baldwin said he had since changed his policies so IDs were scanned with every transaction and customers were now limited to one purchase of no more than $300 per day.

Mr Coates adjourned the hearing for further submissions.

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Originally published as Pink Panther busted in $1000 plus back-to-back sales without checking BDR