Receivers remove fence amid contravention threat

We wonder if Richard Albarran and Kathleen Vouris barked urgent orders yesterday morning, demanding staff locate a tradesperson to immediately remove a fence that the two Hall Chadwick partners had only recently caused to be erected?

Air Tasker? Hire a Hubby? Just get it done, they might have hollered. And they’d have been be right to.

If the offending fence had still been standing at 11:00am today it would have meant the pair had come up against the “hard bar”.

This was what a NSW Supreme Court judge on Tuesday described as the deadline by which time the fence must be removed if Albarran and Vouris didn’t want to be found in contravention of Section 440B of the Corporations Act.

That’s the section prohibiting the enforcement of a charge on company property without the written consent of an administrator or an order of the court.

To commit such a contravention is to invite a conduct inquiry by the court. Unsurprisingly the fence came down – and the possession notices attached to it – faster than you can say “court’s adjourned”.

Almost as fast was the filing by Albarran and Vouris of a notice of appeal.

Justice Ashley Black had made the comments during an ex-parte application commenced on Monday afternoon by the administrators of three entities in the Public Hospitality Group founded by beleaguered publican Jon Adgemis.

On September 13, 2024 BDO partners Duncan Clubb and Andrew Sallway were appointed administrators of Public Lifestyle Management Pty Ltd, 146 Henderson Street Pty Ltd in its personal capacity and in its capacity as the Trustee for 146 Henderson Street Unit Trust and Camelia Grove Operations Pty Ltd.

The three companies are involved in the operation of the Camelia Grove Hotel on Henderson Street Alexandria and while Clubb and Sallway are the joint and several administrators, they were referred the appointment by FTI partner Vaughan Strawbridge, who along with colleague Joe Hansel was appointed receiver on the same day by security holder Muzinich & Co. Adgemis is director of all three entities.

Strawbridge and Hansel are currently trading the pub in the hope of preserving jobs and value but the efficient continuance of those operations was threatened when Albarran and Vouris were appointed as receivers of another Adgemis entity, 152 Henderson Street Pty Ltd, on October 17, replacing AL Restructuring’s Andre Lakomy, who’d been installed as receiver on September 23.

Interestingly nobody – not Lakomy, Albarran or Vouris – was prepared to indemnify their appointor. A search of 152 Henderson on the PPSR however indicates that the priority security holder is GI 212 Pty Ltd, one of the many entities within Justin Epstein’s Gemi Investments Group.

Adgemis is also sole director of 152 Henderson Street, which it turns out controls an indoor restaurant and outdoor eating area, a bottle shop and cold storage facilities adjacent to the Camelia Grove Hotel and historically utilised by the pub.

But once Albarran and Vouris took over from Lakomy up went a wire fence preventing pub staff and patrons from accessing the other areas, impeding efficient operation and squeezing the revenues normally generated when pub patrons move between the restaurant, beer garden and bottlo.

Despite being given notice of the administrators’ application neither Albarran or Vouris appeared on Monday afternoon or yesterday morning. Nor did they respond to requests for comment.

They did however instruct a solicitor to seek an adjournment. The judge refused and made the orders sought. Within a few hours the fence came down and a notice of appeal was flagged.

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