Future of Love Machine nightclub hangs in the balance
Police want to close down Love Machine nightclub after hundreds of alleged criminal incidents. Now an inquiry will decide the future of the troubled club.
Police & Courts
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The future of the troubled Love Machine nightclub will be decided by Victoria’s peak liquor regulator.
The Victorian Liquor Commission will run an inquiry later this year into the Prahran venue after police applied to have it closed.
The force last year submitted a dossier to the Victorian Gaming and Casino Control Commission outlining allegations there had been hundreds of criminal incidents, emergency call-outs and liquor licensing issues.
Among the most serious since 2019 are a double-fatal drive-by shooting, a VIP area glassing which led to an outbreak of gunfire in the suburbs and alleged rapes.
The VLC’s website stated it would run the inquiry into whether there were grounds to take disciplinary action against Sterling Nightclubs.
Sterling holds the late-night licence under which the Malvern Rd business operates.
Grounds the commission will consider are:
THAT the licensee had been found guilty of an offence under the Liquor Control Act.
THAT it contravened a provision of the LCA, its regulations, its licence or a condition of the licences.
THAT the licensee ran Love Machine or allowed it to be conducted “in a manner that from or is detrimental to the amenity of the area.”
THAT the licensee is otherwise not suitable to hold that right.
A directions hearing on the matter will be held in April.
It will decide, among other things, which witnesses are called, the lodgement of submissions, evidence and other documents and the length of the hearing.
If the commission decides disciplinary action should be imposed, potential penalties include the cancellation or suspension of a licence, variation of the licence, a censure or a fine.
Love Machine came to public prominence in April, 2019, when crowd-controller Aaron Osmani and patron Richard Arow were shot in a drive-by attack which also wounded others.
Jacob Elliott, the son of gangland wild man Nabil Maghnie, was last year jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years over the killings.
In 2021, a court heard that a shooting at Greenvale was sparked by a fight in a VIP lounge of the club which broke out earlier in the evening.
It was revealed last year that the club’s boss, Max Porritt, had been charged by police after allegedly refusing to hand over CCTV of an affray.
Several sex offences have been linked to the club, including two alleges rapes in the same toilet cubicle 10 minutes apart on New Year’s Day, 2020.
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