Prahran’s Love Machine nightclub will be forced to close this weekend as authorities desperately attempt to stem the violence that has plagued the notorious venue over the past month.
The licensee of Love Machine was served with the suspension order on Tuesday, forcing the Malvern Road club to close for the entire weekend from 10am Friday, August 22, until the morning of Monday, August 25.
A fight between different factions of the Comancheros outside Love Machine.
The unusual step taken by the regulator to impose the ban follows a firearms incident last weekend and two wild brawls between Comanchero bikies and security guards outside the venue, on July 27 and August 8.
Love Machine management and its lawyers now have two days to challenge the suspension by applying to the Supreme Court for an injunction.
A Victorian Liquor Commission spokesman said the agency had issued a notice about suspending the liquor licence of Love Machine, according to section 96B of the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998, for three consecutive days.
The spokesman said the licensee had until 3pm on Thursday to respond to the notice.
A Victoria Police spokesman said the force had provided the regulator with a “summary of incidents at the venue in recent times which supported the VLC issuing this notice”.
Dhir Kakar, sole director of Sterling Nightclubs Pty Ltd, which owns Love Machine, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Kakar and the company have a separate matter with the Liquor Commission before the courts, and were put on notice by the regulator last year, when the club was fined $20,000 for repeated licensing breaches.
Love Machine was warned its licence was under scrutiny, and it would face a harsher outcome if it appeared before the commission again, according to a statement by the commission on June 13 last year.
Ruka Carlson, 30, was stabbed to death after being chased from Love Machine on Easter Sunday.Credit: Instagram
Last Sunday morning, detectives from the armed crime squad responded to a firearms incident outside the club after shots were fired during a fight – a bullet narrowly missing Western Bulldogs player Jamarra Ugle-Hagan as he was leaving about 2.25am.
The altercation was the third violent episode in the past few weekends outside the club, which has been the target of repeated violence by members of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang.
Several bikies, including the gang’s former national sergeant-at-arms, Tarek Zahed, were involved in a brawl with security staff outside the club on July 27 which left three men in hospital with facial injuries.
On August 8, Comanchero members stormed the venue after another altercation.
A 32-year-old man was treated by paramedics at the scene. A 28-year-old man from Narre Warren was later arrested and charged over both incidents, and with possessing a controlled weapon.
The venue’s management announced on social media that it would be closed on the Saturday following the second incident “due to unexpected plumbing issues”.
In April, 30-year-old father Ruka Carlson was stabbed to death on Chapel Street after reportedly being chased from Love Machine, after a fight involving a gun at the venue.
The venue is infamous for a fatal drive-by shooting in 2019. In that incident, security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, and patron Richard Arow, 28, were killed when Jacob Elliott fired shots from a 32-calibre assault rifle into the crowd outside. Three other people were struck by bullets and another was injured trying to avoid the attack.
In June this year, Love Machine’s marketing manager and former co-owner, Andrew Varigos, faced the County Court over allegations he repeatedly raped and assaulted a female employee, after the pair partied in a private booth at the club in 2020.
Former Love Machine co-owner Andrew Varigos has been charged with rape.Credit: Luis Ascui
Varigos, 38, is charged with three counts of rape and one count of assault. He has entered a plea of not guilty.
Philip Dunn, KC, acting for Varigos, told the court his client admitted having sex with the woman, but argued it was consensual.
A jury was unable to reach a verdict and Judge Stewart Bayles ruled a mistrial. Varigos will return to the County Court in October for a mention hearing.
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