Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
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‘You can snort cocaine off my tits’: The guns, drugs and girls of Australia’s most outrageous strip club baron
AUSTRALIA’S most outrageous strip club baron has frankly admitted it all: the firearms, the underage stripper, his criminal past and his dancers snorting cocaine while naked with clients.
In his seven-year reign as king of the sleazy club strip in Sydney’s Kings Cross, Michael Amante has had his regrets and a good laugh.
There was the day his wife was accidentally shot in the bottom, and the day his dancers at Dreamgirls got him into trouble because they “forgot to put their undies back on after the stage show”.
The son of Kings Cross identity Frank “Ashtray” Amante, he copped the charges, the fines and the 55 days in prison.
But then came the night that was to be Michael Amante’s undoing as the king of the Cross world.
During this evening, undercover police invited into the “hush” upstairs rooms of Dreamgirls witnessed debauched scenes of nudity and cocaine taking.
Posing as clients wanting private strip shows and drugs, the officers heard one stripper say, “you can snort coke off my tits”.
What the strippers didn’t know was that police were about to pounce in a sting operation on clubs in the Kings Cross strip along Darlinghurst Road of four clubs, including Dreamgirls and the Bada Bing Club.
Frequented by footballers, pop stars and celebrities, about 11pm on Saturday, December 19 last year the clubs were filled with hundreds of customers.
Upstairs at Dreamgirls, one of the undercover cops was told he could book a private dance for $400.
In the private rooms, which were unlicensed, a stripper told one of the cops “you can drink and smoke whatever up there”.
At 11.53pm, the undercover cops negotiated with a stripper to buy a gram of cocaine.
The stripper walked back into the shower room and handed the officer a small resealable bag containing white powder and saying, “hey, so nice to see you again”.
A minute later, officers walked into a toilet and observed the strippers “openly snorting cocaine off their fingers which they were seen dipping into a small resealable plastic bag”.
One of the cops engaged a stripper and they walked into a room where Ash “removed her clothing and the (officer) asked Ash for ‘blow’, a slang word for cocaine. Ash said it was ‘$350’.”
Another cop engaged another stripper, who he followed upstairs for a private show.
Afterwards, he saw a shirtless male bending over a line of white powder on the table with his driver’s licence, and leaning in to snort the line of cocaine.
The same cop “also saw a number of naked females dancing around the table with a number of males, some of whom appeared intoxicated”.
“The (officer) saw one female who was clearly drug affected. She was naked, her complexion was pale, her head was slumped back and she was dancing with her arms raised but her hands limp at the wrists.
“Her mouth was slightly open and her eyes were partially closed.”
Around 100 armed officers and detectives stormed the premises and ordered patrons to lie on the floor.
Sniffer dogs specially trained to find cocaine searched the premises. Police found two females in Dreamgirls with cocaine.
It was the beginning of the end for Amante.
“I’m familiar with the two girls — I think it was only two to my knowledge — that got, were found with cocaine on them,” he said.
Police immediately shut down both Dreamgirls and the Bada Bing. Amante, who had operated the club since 2008, came under the microscope.
He argued that what the police had found was all part of the Kings Cross strip, and nothing out of the ordinary.
“We are a strip club in Kings Cross. These girls aren’t secretaries or librarians and our customers are from all walks of life, so I think it will be foolish not to assume that some drugs went on,” he said.
“I’m not sure what led to the intel that we were some big cocaine supplying club that required 45 armed swat like police officers to raid the club ... But we weren’t.”
“Perhaps me getting caught with 8.6 grams of cocaine triggered something I’m not sure.”
On November 19, 2015, police pulled over Amante in Kings Cross and found 12 resealable bags allegedly containing $6000 worth of cocaine in his possession.
Investigators from the NSW independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) began examining his fitness to hold the Dreamgirls licence.
There was, Amante admitted, a record of lesser breaches and more serious charges of allowing minors into his club.
“ deeply regret letting the minor in and employing an under age dancer seven years go,” he told ILGA in an effort to defend himself against a life ban.
“The underage kid sneaking in I have no excuse for, well I do, but I’m not going to make you listen to my sob story.
“In September 2012 four girls forgot to put their undies back on after finishing their stage show. I mean how serious is this crime?
“We are a strip club and it wasn’t as if they came off stage and wandered into the crowd nude, they simply went to the change room and got dressed.”
Amante agreed his own criminal history “sounds terrible” but said it was “nowhere near as bad as it sounds”.
“The drink driving charges, one is 20 years ago and one was in 2002. The one in 2002 goes with a string of charges and the only reason I lied to the police about my identity was because I had a good job at Qantas which I was afraid of losing.”
In emails to the ILGA, Amante defended his good character, producing a letter to the tuckshop at the school his son attends, and where he has volunteered several times as a parent.
“As for the firearm charge, it was an air rifle not an AK 47.
“I shot my wife in the backside with it from two metres away while she was wearing jeans and all she did was go ‘ahhhhh’.
“If you really want to know the truth it wasn’t even me who shot the damn thing off my veranda accidentally into the toilet window of a Korean BBQ restaurant that was adjacent to our block of flats in Potts Point.
“Neither the less I took the blame and spent 55 days over Christmas and New Years and my son’s birthday in Silverwater Correctional Centre (maximum security).”
Amante was jailed briefly in 2010.
In February this year, the ILGA shut down Dreamgirls for six months. Amante was convicted of operating a clandestine unlicensed bar, fined $7000 and ordered to pay $1500 in legal costs.
He admitted he “knew it was illegal” but defended himself, saying the club only used it “for private shows”.
“The lockout laws really hurt us,” he said.
“I started using this part of the building simply so we could boost business and keep the girls happy.
“At no time were they in any danger ... I had cameras installed in every room.”
But the ILGA had no mercy. Its report on Amante, released this month, has banned the king of the Cross.
The ILGA decided that Mr Amante should be banned for life from holding a liquor licence and being associated with licensed premises in NSW,
NSW Deputy Premier and Justice Minister Troy Grant said a life ban was among the harshest penalties available under the Liquor Act.
“Our independent umpire is ensuring bad seeds are weeded out of the industry in an efficient and fair manner, making nights out safer for the community,” he said.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...n/news-story/034a42aba87104152548492c75bd021d
AUSTRALIA’S most outrageous strip club baron has frankly admitted it all: the firearms, the underage stripper, his criminal past and his dancers snorting cocaine while naked with clients.
In his seven-year reign as king of the sleazy club strip in Sydney’s Kings Cross, Michael Amante has had his regrets and a good laugh.
There was the day his wife was accidentally shot in the bottom, and the day his dancers at Dreamgirls got him into trouble because they “forgot to put their undies back on after the stage show”.
The son of Kings Cross identity Frank “Ashtray” Amante, he copped the charges, the fines and the 55 days in prison.
But then came the night that was to be Michael Amante’s undoing as the king of the Cross world.
During this evening, undercover police invited into the “hush” upstairs rooms of Dreamgirls witnessed debauched scenes of nudity and cocaine taking.
Posing as clients wanting private strip shows and drugs, the officers heard one stripper say, “you can snort coke off my tits”.
What the strippers didn’t know was that police were about to pounce in a sting operation on clubs in the Kings Cross strip along Darlinghurst Road of four clubs, including Dreamgirls and the Bada Bing Club.
Frequented by footballers, pop stars and celebrities, about 11pm on Saturday, December 19 last year the clubs were filled with hundreds of customers.
Upstairs at Dreamgirls, one of the undercover cops was told he could book a private dance for $400.
In the private rooms, which were unlicensed, a stripper told one of the cops “you can drink and smoke whatever up there”.
At 11.53pm, the undercover cops negotiated with a stripper to buy a gram of cocaine.
The stripper walked back into the shower room and handed the officer a small resealable bag containing white powder and saying, “hey, so nice to see you again”.
A minute later, officers walked into a toilet and observed the strippers “openly snorting cocaine off their fingers which they were seen dipping into a small resealable plastic bag”.
One of the cops engaged a stripper and they walked into a room where Ash “removed her clothing and the (officer) asked Ash for ‘blow’, a slang word for cocaine. Ash said it was ‘$350’.”
Another cop engaged another stripper, who he followed upstairs for a private show.
Afterwards, he saw a shirtless male bending over a line of white powder on the table with his driver’s licence, and leaning in to snort the line of cocaine.
The same cop “also saw a number of naked females dancing around the table with a number of males, some of whom appeared intoxicated”.
“The (officer) saw one female who was clearly drug affected. She was naked, her complexion was pale, her head was slumped back and she was dancing with her arms raised but her hands limp at the wrists.
“Her mouth was slightly open and her eyes were partially closed.”
Around 100 armed officers and detectives stormed the premises and ordered patrons to lie on the floor.
Sniffer dogs specially trained to find cocaine searched the premises. Police found two females in Dreamgirls with cocaine.
It was the beginning of the end for Amante.
“I’m familiar with the two girls — I think it was only two to my knowledge — that got, were found with cocaine on them,” he said.
Police immediately shut down both Dreamgirls and the Bada Bing. Amante, who had operated the club since 2008, came under the microscope.
He argued that what the police had found was all part of the Kings Cross strip, and nothing out of the ordinary.
“We are a strip club in Kings Cross. These girls aren’t secretaries or librarians and our customers are from all walks of life, so I think it will be foolish not to assume that some drugs went on,” he said.
“I’m not sure what led to the intel that we were some big cocaine supplying club that required 45 armed swat like police officers to raid the club ... But we weren’t.”
“Perhaps me getting caught with 8.6 grams of cocaine triggered something I’m not sure.”
On November 19, 2015, police pulled over Amante in Kings Cross and found 12 resealable bags allegedly containing $6000 worth of cocaine in his possession.
Investigators from the NSW independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) began examining his fitness to hold the Dreamgirls licence.
There was, Amante admitted, a record of lesser breaches and more serious charges of allowing minors into his club.
“ deeply regret letting the minor in and employing an under age dancer seven years go,” he told ILGA in an effort to defend himself against a life ban.
“The underage kid sneaking in I have no excuse for, well I do, but I’m not going to make you listen to my sob story.
“In September 2012 four girls forgot to put their undies back on after finishing their stage show. I mean how serious is this crime?
“We are a strip club and it wasn’t as if they came off stage and wandered into the crowd nude, they simply went to the change room and got dressed.”
Amante agreed his own criminal history “sounds terrible” but said it was “nowhere near as bad as it sounds”.
“The drink driving charges, one is 20 years ago and one was in 2002. The one in 2002 goes with a string of charges and the only reason I lied to the police about my identity was because I had a good job at Qantas which I was afraid of losing.”
In emails to the ILGA, Amante defended his good character, producing a letter to the tuckshop at the school his son attends, and where he has volunteered several times as a parent.
“As for the firearm charge, it was an air rifle not an AK 47.
“I shot my wife in the backside with it from two metres away while she was wearing jeans and all she did was go ‘ahhhhh’.
“If you really want to know the truth it wasn’t even me who shot the damn thing off my veranda accidentally into the toilet window of a Korean BBQ restaurant that was adjacent to our block of flats in Potts Point.
“Neither the less I took the blame and spent 55 days over Christmas and New Years and my son’s birthday in Silverwater Correctional Centre (maximum security).”
Amante was jailed briefly in 2010.
In February this year, the ILGA shut down Dreamgirls for six months. Amante was convicted of operating a clandestine unlicensed bar, fined $7000 and ordered to pay $1500 in legal costs.
He admitted he “knew it was illegal” but defended himself, saying the club only used it “for private shows”.
“The lockout laws really hurt us,” he said.
“I started using this part of the building simply so we could boost business and keep the girls happy.
“At no time were they in any danger ... I had cameras installed in every room.”
But the ILGA had no mercy. Its report on Amante, released this month, has banned the king of the Cross.
The ILGA decided that Mr Amante should be banned for life from holding a liquor licence and being associated with licensed premises in NSW,
NSW Deputy Premier and Justice Minister Troy Grant said a life ban was among the harshest penalties available under the Liquor Act.
“Our independent umpire is ensuring bad seeds are weeded out of the industry in an efficient and fair manner, making nights out safer for the community,” he said.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...n/news-story/034a42aba87104152548492c75bd021d
