A Melbourne neo-Nazi allegedly extorted hundreds of dollars from a city publican after a staff member recognised a far-right tattoo on the shoulder of a patron and spat in their drink.
Local neo-Nazi members have been bragging on secret and encrypted social media channels populated with right-wing supporters that Irish Times Pub manager Nitin Parashar handed over $651 after they threatened the pub with complaints to regulators and flooded Google with negative reviews.
Parashar, who has managed the pub for 12 years, told The Age he did not know what the tattoo meant, or who the individuals were when they complained about their treatment. He has spoken to police about the incident.
“I have been in hospitality for 17 years, and I’ve never come across anything like this. I would never have thought in my wildest dreams that I would be part of something like this. The last thing I want is this to tarnish our brand name and what we stand for,” he said.
The tattoo recognised by bar staff, the Nazi icon the “black sun”, popularised by far-right Ukrainian infantry unit the Azov Regiment, was on the right shoulder of Nazi sympathiser Jimeone Roberts as he drank on August 2 this year with fellow neo-Nazis Neil Erikson and Stefanos “Stefan” Eracleous.
Read the article by David Estcourt and Nick McKenzie in The Age.