Dinner by Heston liquidator may hold public hearings into the restaurant’s collapse

Crown is the biggest single creditor of Dinner by Heston, but it has lashed out at the restaurant’s parent company as the blame game over the collapse ramps up.

Liquidators of the Heston Blumenthal-fronted Dinner by Heston may hold public hearings in the federal or supreme courts into the ritzy restaurant’s collapse.

Creditors late Monday attended an update on the collapse held by liquidator Brian Silvia of BRI Ferrier.

The restaurant’s parent business Tipsy Cake went into administration late last year amid revelations it underpaid employee entitlements for four years until June 2019.

It owes staff about $4.4 million in back pay.

Chefs Ashley Palmer Watts and Heston Blumenthal celebrating the first anniversary of the restaurant at Crown. Picture: David Caird

The restaurant was based at Crown Melbourne, and Crown is the biggest single creditor.

But liquidators have revealed that a number of payments made to Crown by the failed business were in dispute.

It is understood liquidators are seeking to recoup some of these.

This includes a figure of $3m which is held by Crown but liquidators say could be handed back to them if found to be a “preference payment” made as the business faltered.

It is understood liquidators are leaving open options, including public hearings in the courts which could call restaurant managers and representatives from Crown.

Dinner by Heston closed after the company that owned it, Tipsy Cake, went into voluntary administration.

Crown said in a statement that it was “disappointing” that Tipsy Cake “continues to abrogate their responsibility for paying their staff correctly”.

“To assert that Crown is complicit in the actions of the UK owners is fanciful,” the statement said.

It came as under-fire restaurateur George Calombaris appeared downcast as hopes seemed dasehd that some venues in his collapsed food empire may be quickly saved.

More than 400 staff remain in limbo as administrators feverishly negotiate to find new owners for leases to keep open some of MAdE Establishment’s 12 venues.

Any deals are now expected to be announced by the creditors’ meeting on Thursday in Melbourne.

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Both the Calombaris and Blumenthal venues came across the underpayments themselves and self-reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

In both cases it was acknowledged to be poor paperwork rather than deliberate action.

MAdE had already paid back workers in 2017, two years before the ombudsman finished its investigation.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government is pushing ahead with plans to criminalise what it calls wage theft, with a discussion paper outlining ways to better protect employees and help them claw back unpaid wages.

A range of options, from jail terms and fines for directors, is being examined under proposed new laws criminalising wage theft.

Existing civil compliance laws, which demand workers be reimbursed for lost wages, could also be beefed up.

The Herald Sun is not suggesting that either Heston or Calombaris were aware of the underpayments, and would have been captured by the proposed new laws.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said the government wanted to ensure corporate Australia “lifts its game when it comes to paying its workers properly.’’

“Legislation will be introduced in coming weeks that will criminalise the most serious forms of deliberate worker exploitation and wage underpayments and introduce significant jail terms and fines,’’ he said.

Mr Porter added: “Speeding up the recovery of unpaid wages for employees is also a high priority.”