Little Miss Korea fined $12,000 for explosion that engulfed six diners
A Northern Territory judge has concluded two well-regarded Korean restaurateurs could not “easily or reasonably” have foreseen the CBD explosion that injured several diners and tanked their business reputation.
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A Darwin restaurant that closed after a butane explosion engulfed six diners, hospitalising five men, one of whom suffered burns to 40 per cent of his body, has been fined $12,000.
Austin Lane institution Little Miss Korea, represented in Darwin Local Court by owners Chung Jae Lee and Dianne Jayne Lee, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of failure to comply with its health and safety duties.
The Lees were not charged in their personal capacity.
On Wednesday, Judge Julie Franz fined the partnership $12,000 but spared it a conviction.
Judge Franz told the court the six diners arrived at the restaurant between 6.15–6.21pm on September 7, 2022, for a booking.
At 8.05pm, there was a “flash of fire” at the table the men were sitting at, which had a “charcoal basin” in the centre, above which the men could grill Korean meats.
According to the agreed statement of facts, extracts of which Judge Franz read onto the public record, the tables had installed butane gas canisters to fuel the charcoal’s ignition and burning.
However, Little Miss Korea’s butane canisters were not connected to the charcoal basin, with the briquettes instead pre-heated in the kitchen and placed in the basin – which, on the night in question, caused the canisters to explode.
Judge Franz said the canisters were installed correctly in the table and such a configuration was common among Korean barbecue restaurants.
She said there was “no other known incident where fire has erupted as consequence” of pre-heated charcoal briquettes being placed into the barbecue pit in such a way.
Judge Franz found that the risk of the canisters igniting was “not actually foreseen by the defendant,” nor could it be “easily or reasonably”.
She noted that the husband-and-wife partnership had successfully operated Korean barbecue restaurants for 20 years prior to the offence date, with no prior incidents.
Judge Franz further accepted the submission of the Lees’ defence lawyer that the explosion had been “personally, emotionally and financially” catastrophic for them.
The court previously heard that their new restaurant interstate turned a profit of just $1286 last year and that they were also forced to sell their Little Miss Korea premises at a swingeing loss.
The Lees had previously scaled the dizzying heights of success, operating a “multi award-winning” 140-seat restaurant in Adelaide for approximately a decade before setting up Little Miss Korea in 2015.
Taking everything into consideration, she found the failure to comply with a health and safety duty to be at the lowest end of the scale.
The former Little Miss Korea site has recently reopened as Meraki Greek Taverna, which made its debut on Smith St in late 2020 but was forced to close in January 2023 in the wake of alleged issues with its building, which now sits vacant.
Little Miss Korea owners plead over Darwin explosion
April 2: A multi-award winning culinary duo could face a hefty fine for a practice used by every Korean barbecue restaurant in Australia, a court has heard.
On Tuesday the owners of Little Miss Korea, Chung Jae Lee and Dianne Jayne Lee, appeared in Darwin Local Court to plead guilty to one count of failure to comply with its health and safety duties.
It comes 18 months after an explosion at their Austin Lane restaurant engulfed six diners in flames, resulting in five men being hospitalised.
One of the diners was left with burns to 40 per cent of his body.
Judge Julie Franz heard that while the ultimate cause of the explosion remained hotly contested, the popular diner conceded they had failed to contain the risk by leaving a butane canister in the grill unit.
However, defence barrister David Edwardson KC said the set up was a “recognised method adopted by Korean barbecue restaurants in the Northern Territory and in fact around the country”.
“It is accepted that there was an exposure of a risk or failure to comply with that duty by leaving the gas canisters inside the barbecue unit, when placing the charcoal inside.”
But Mr Edwardson said the Lees honestly believed the “stock standard” barbecue units were “fit for purpose” and “it wasn't contemplated that the risk should have been assessed”.
He said the married culinary couple had decades of experience running Korean barbecue restaurants across Adelaide and Darwin, with Mr Lee releasing his own cookbook, and they were “confident in the use of this equipment”.
But since the explosion, Mr Edwardson said Little Miss Korea had reformed their safety policies and were now likely the “only restaurant that doesn’t use that method anymore”.
Mr Edwardson said the Lees had suffered significantly since the explosion, with their $2m a year turnover halving in the 12 months after the incident.
He said at the same time the Lees were looking to sell the restaurant for $595,000, but that plummeted to $250,000.
Mr Edwardson pushed for a non-conviction order due to the stress and financial burden
the “good genuine, hard working people” had suffered.
NT WorkSafe lawyer Nicholas Goodfellow said the long-time restaurateurs had a good history of compliance and there was no suggestion of a “knowing disregard” of their customer’s safety.
Ms Franz adjourned the hearing to Wednesday for sentencing.
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