CHOC TOP:
ABOVE PIC: Courtesy of Tyson who’s credibility has gone off the scale after landing me this real ad for the Coogee bay hotel caught up in the ‘shit scandle’, just read the wording of the ad!, it’s almost as if this was printed as a joke after the ‘Skat incident’ .. ‘Free ice cream, decorate with a selection of toppings’ indeed.
Coogee Bay Hotel pays Whyte family $50,000 after faeces-in-gelato fiasco
By Nick Leys
The Sunday Telegraph
November 09, 2008 12:50am
The Coogee Bay Hotel may have paid up to $200,000 to a family whose gelato was contaminated with faecal matter. 11/ 2008 Sky News
Poo payout Settled … the Coogee Bay Hotel will pay $50,000 to a family allegedly served gelato contiminated with faeces.
THE Coogee Bay Hotel will pay $50,000 in settlement to the family at the centre of the ice cream scandal to avoid further legal action.
It follows a 12-hour mediation session on Friday between hotel management and Steve and Jessica Whyte.
It is understood the $50,000 was agreed upon, plus a full apology from the hotel and a retraction of any suggestion the Whytes staged the whole affair to extort money.
The only questions remaining are: who put the poo in the gelato and why?
A police investigation is still underway.
While a substantial amount of money, it will have to cover hefty legal fees the Whytes have incurred after a two-week fight with the Coogee Bay Hotel.
The money also does not take into account losses to the family business as the Whytes have fought for an apology from the hotel.
The settlement also gags all parties from discussing its details with the media.
Related Coverage
• ‘Poo hotel’ destined to be the butt of jokesNEWS.com.au, 31 Oct 2008
• Family get $50k after poo-in-pudding scandalNEWS.com.au, 8 Nov 2008
• Ice cream ‘poo’ tests inconclusiveNEWS.com.au, 6 Nov 2008
• Pub pooh-poohing complaint, couple sayNEWS.com.au, 27 Oct 2008
• Coogee Bay footage ‘shows nothing’NEWS.com.au, 2 Nov 2008
LOVE THE ABOVE HEADLINES:
Steve and Jessica Whyte refused to answer questions yesterday, as did their solicitor Steven Lewis, of Slater and Gordon.
Prior to Friday’s mediation, The Sunday Telegraph was told the Whytes would file a legal action in court on Monday morning if an agreement was not reached.
It is understood that action would have been followed by a claim of defamation against the hotel over the imputation that the Whytes were attempting to extort money from the hotel.
Originally the hotel offered the Whytes $5000 without accepting liability. It now appears the Whytes, who rejected that amount, will walk away with not much more.
All along the couple have reiterated their position that they have only wanted an apology and for the hotel to admit liability.
Friday’s 12-hour mediation session was without breaks for lunch or dinner and concluded about 10pm. The mediation was between the Whytes and the hotel and did not involve other members of staff as previously requested.
The hotel has employed three well-respected former NSW detectives in a bid to get to the bottom of the scandal as quickly as possible and find out who was responsible.
They are Ken Bowditch, who headed investigations into the Bulldogs alleged sexual assault scandal; Steve Mathews, an ex-detective of the armed hold-up squad, and Brian Haddin, who was involved in maintaining Olympics security.
The scandal arose after the Whyte family was served a bowl of ice cream containing foul-smelling brown matter at an NRL grand final lunch at the hotel’s brasserie last month.
Laboratory reports confirmed it was faecal waste.
Hugh Macken, president of the NSW Law Society, said a civil case against the hotel by the Whytes would have been unlikely to succeed.
“Clearly, if there was any prospect of recovering damages from an act of negligence against a hotel, they have reduced their cost very significantly by resolving it before the litigation starts,” he said.
But defamation cases regularly award plaintiffs payouts of more than $100,000.
“A defamation act would have been far more likely to succeed,” he said, unless the hotel could prove the extortion allegations were true.
Legal experts estimated the Whytes’ legal bill to date would range from between $10,000 to $30,000.
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So basically for eating a nob of shit you can pick up fifty grand, that sort of money will get you a lot of mouthwash and maybe a bit of tooth whitening. Greg is trying to train his thoughts away from what he’s thinking and planning, basically it involves the North Indian diner and the possible deposit for a house hmmmmmmmmmm.