Strip club boss convicted for allowing naked lap dancing

The former licensee of the Dollhouse strip club in Potts Point has been ordered to pay $15,000 in fines and legal costs for offences including allowing physical contact between strippers and patrons.

In Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, June 18, Ulysses Flevotomos was convicted of two liquor licence breaches arising from a Liquor & Gaming NSW investigation.

Inspectors attended the venue on September 23, 2017 and seized CCTV footage showing 29 occasions over three and a half hours when strippers engaged in physical contact with patrons, including naked lap dancing, fondling and kissing between patrons and workers.

The Daily Telegraph has published one of the images from the footage.

This was in breach of a licence condition specifically banning such contact.

Flevotomos was also convicted for breaching a requirement to have recordings of continuous CCTV footage of all public areas at all times the venue is open.

The investigation found 95 occasions where CCTV footage was missing.

In sentencing Flevotomos, Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson said venues with adult entertainment required strict regulation.

She rejected his submission that the multiple offences in relation to physical contact between strippers and patrons were towards the lower end of the scale.

In a separate action in March, the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) banned Flevotomos from the liquor industry for life for multiple offences including allowing frequent cocaine use and sexual activity between strippers and patrons at the Dollhouse.

ILGA also banned the former strip club boss from being a close associate of any NSW liquor licensee for 10 years, and banned him permanently from entering the venue.

It described Flevotomos’s offending as one of the worst records of non-compliance it has ever dealt with.

Flevotomos has since appealed the ban on him entering the venue to the NSW Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which has allowed him to attend as a patron until it rules on the matter in August.

Liquor & Gaming NSW Director of Compliance Operations, Sean Goodchild, said higher risk venues such as strip clubs must ensure strict compliance with the law to keep people safe.

“Mr Flevotomos has multiple convictions relating to his tenure as licensee of the Dollhouse. As ILGA’s life ban showed, there is no place in the liquor industry for people like Mr Flevotomos who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law,” Goodchild said.

Killing Sydney's night life

The former strip club boss told The Daily Telegraph liquor and gaming officers were “silly” for clamping down on the strip club and accused them of killing off Kings Cross’s surviving night life.

“The state government killed The Cross with the lockout laws and now they’re killing what’s left.

“The licencing officers are silly. There was no sex or touching at my club. I wasn’t always there but since when was it wrong for a customer to kiss hello on the cheek to one of the dancers?”

Flevotomos sold Dollhouse last month, saying he was "too long in the tooth for this".

“I’m going to go travelling and try my luck in Melbourne where there are no lockout laws and where it’s not a crime to kiss someone hello on the cheek,” he added.