An Irish pub in Melbourne is the centre of a scandal after it sacked two employees for allegedly spitting in a neo-Nazi's drink during a heated argument.
The Irish Times pub addressed the incident, which occurred on August 2, in a social media statement.
"The Irish Times Management would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Jimeone Roberts and his friends - Stefanos, Neil Erikson, Thomas Sewell, and Ricky T. for the incident that took place," the statement reads.
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The statement added it had sacked the two employees involved.
"The Irish Times Management team strongly disapproves of the ex-employee’s unprofessional conduct by spitting into the patron’s drink as a consequence of a discussion with the patron over a political topic," the statement said.
Jimone Roberts told the Herald Sun that the argument with the bartenders kicked off over a Sonnenrad 'sun wheel' tattoo on his right arm, which is a hate symbol used by the Nazis in the 1930s.
"The bartender hassled me about a tattoo before instigating a political discussion,” Roberts said, as per the Herald Sun.
"He then asked: 'Do you support multiculturalism?' He didn’t like hearing the word 'no' to this, so he spat into my beer during a national pandemic."
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Shortly after the incident, Stefanos 'Stefan' Eracleous, one of the neo-Nazis in the pub at the time, contacted pub manager Nitin Parashar demanding he pay him $651, and issue an apology on their Facebook page.
Eracleous threatened to pursue the pub 'in court and other arenas', as per The Age.
Since the incident, The Age reported that neo-Nazi members 'have been bragging on secret and encrypted social media channels populated with right-wing supporters’ after Parashar handed over the $651 dollars requested.
The number 51 in the cash demand is significant to right-wing supporters as it is the number of victims in the Christchurch massacre, as per The Age.
The pub has also been flooded with negative Google reviews by supporters.
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One review read: "Spitting in a customer's beer and being anti-white; not a place you want to visit if you care about your white ancestors."
Others have hit out at the apology, with one user on Facebook pointing out that 'apologising to well-known neo-Nazis who are members and associates of the Nationalist Socialist Network is never a good look'.
The pub issued another social media statement defending their apology after they were roasted for kowtowing to pressure from the neo-Nazis.
"As a small business, still recovering from the impacts of COVID-19, we followed the legal advice in taking disciplinary action for the unprofessional conduct of our staff for spitting in a paying customer’s beer," The Irish Times Pub management said.
"We do not want to be in the centre of any political views or topics."
Rachel Lang