Kings Cross strip-club owner fails to overturn ban on entering his own venues
A Sydney strip-club owner will remain barred from entering his own clubs for 12 months after a tribunal upheld a long-term banning order.
Manthos Papadopoulos owns Sydney Elements and Showgirls in Kings Cross, Sydney. Both premises are classified as high-risk venues in the city's Kings Cross and central business district entertainment precincts.
The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, the state liquor regulator, imposed the ban in July after a request from NSW Police. The order prohibits Papadopoulos from entering or remaining in any high-risk venue in those precincts for 12 months, which includes his own businesses The Guardian.
Papadopoulos applied to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which reviews government decisions, for a review of the order. Senior tribunal member Dr Thalia Gordon heard the application and upheld the ban in a decision published on Monday. Papadopoulos told the tribunal he had invested more than $17 million in the Sydney Elements business.
The ban followed criminal charges laid in March. On 15 March, Papadopoulos was arrested and charged with seven offences, including intentionally choking a person without consent, after an incident at Sydney Elements. Later that month he was charged over other alleged incidents at the club and at his home.
One allegation is that Papadopoulos slapped a highly intoxicated staff member in the face with his penis during an incident at Sydney Elements. Police interviewed him on 15 March. He made no admissions in that interview and said CCTV footage was AI-generated and part of a conspiracy.
Later in March, Papadopoulos was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm over a separate incident at Sydney Elements involving a man he described as an intruder. Police allege he pushed the man against a wall, threw him to the ground, punched and stomped on his torso, then kicked him in the face, causing unconsciousness.
The criminal charges are listed before a court for a hearing in March next year. The tribunal decision leaves the banning order in place while those proceedings continue.
