Commune cafe Burleigh and Etsu Izakaya restaurant Mermaid Beach have tax debts as far as 2014

Directors of two popular Gold Coast eateries have unpaid tax on the businesses going back up to five years, and may have been trading insolvent for that time, a damning liquidator’s report has alleged. A third restaurant with the same owners is now on the market.

Etsu owners Mitch and Nerissa McCluskey. Pic: Luke Marsden.

DIRECTORS of two popular Gold Coast eateries have unpaid tax on the businesses going back up to five years, and may have been trading insolvent for that time, a damning liquidator’s report has alleged.

In his report to the corporate regulator, liquidator Matthew Bookless of SV Partners said Mitchell and Nerissa McCluskey’s Commune Espresso at Burleigh Heads had suffered ongoing losses for more than five years, while Etsu Izakaya restaurant at Mermaid Beach had not made enough money to cover its outstanding tax since at least 2016.

Both companies went into liquidation with combined debts to staff and others of more than $862,000 in June.

Mr Bookless said a third restaurant operated by the well-known couple, Iku Yakitori Bar, was on the market after it borrowed more than $200,000 from the companies before they failed.

He has issued demands for Iku Yakitori, of which Mr McCluskey is sole director, to repay the loans but has not received a response, the documents said.

The company behind Iku Yakitori has not gone into liquidation. The Bulletin has contacted Mr McCluskey for a response.

Commune at Burleigh Heads has incurred losses since 2014, according to a liquidator’s report. Pic: David Clark

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Despite the drama, all three of the couple’s restaurants have remained open, with Commune and Etsu selling to two new companies, also owned and operated by the McCluskeys, for $1000 each before the old companies collapsed.

Mr Bookless claimed in his report the directors may have committed four offences under the Corporations Act for each failed company, including insolvent trading and failing to exercise care and diligence, and that his findings had been passed on to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Etsu Izakaya at Mermaid Beach. Photography : Russell Shakespeare

Mr Bookless found while Mr McCluskey was registered sole director of Etsu, and Ms McCluskey was registered sole director of Commune, they were each a shadow director of the other company. Both are joint shareholders in each company.

The liquidator said he was investigating the personal assets of the couple to determine whether or not to pursue an insolvent trading claim to try and recover some funds for creditors.

The documents, lodged with ASIC last week, said Etsu had outstanding tax debts from “at least June 30, 2016”, with Commune’s unpaid tax going back to August 2014, with Mr Bookless saying the companies were “likely insolvent” from those dates.

More than $700,000 in tax is owed by the two companies.

Mitchell McCluskey at Iku Yakitori Bar at Burleigh Heads. Picture: Mike Batterham

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Mr Bookless said Commune had made losses every financial year since 2014 while Etsu had not made sufficient profit to cover its tax debt since 2016 and had “entered into multiple payment arrangements with the ATO which were not adhered to”.

The documents reveal Etsu loaned the couple’s third restaurant, Iku Yakitori, $121,672 before Etsu went into liquidation, while Commune loaned it $76,435.

The liquidations follow the failures of two Italian restaurants in two days in June, with the unrelated companies behind That Italian Place at Chevron Island and Cicchetti at Isle of Capri both in liquidation.

Chinese yum cha restaurant Sky Surfers Paradise was wound up the same month — but also kept trading through a new company.