PHOTO
The Dunedin owner of two Indian restaurants has been accused of "serious failures" in paying staff and could face up to seven years behind bars.
Prakash Khattri, 45, made headlines recently as one of the embattled owners of Dunedin’s Eleven Bar which was stripped of its liquor licence this month amid evidence of severe mismanagement, excessive drinking and flagrant breaches of Covid-19 protocols.
Khattri appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday on 12 charges relating to another of his companies, Everest Food New Zealand Ltd.
The Companies Office lists the defendant as the sole director and shareholder of the business, which is behind the India Garden restaurants in Cromwell and Dunedin.
The Dunedin establishment has since closed.
Between 2017 and 2021, the defendant is accused of "serious failure" to pay six workers money they were owed under the Holidays Act and the Minimum Wage Act.
Three of the complainants were based in Cromwell while three were employed in Dunedin.
Court documents do not detail the total alleged underpayments.
One of the employees — all of whom were in the country on temporary entry class visas — was allegedly ripped off for four and a-half years while working for the company at the former Hanover St site.
Complainants told the Otago Daily Times they had been instructed not to comment on the case while it progressed through the court.
Khattri appeared before a registrar at court yesterday and was granted bail without opposition.
Among his bail conditions were a ban from contacting 10 people (witnesses and complainants) and he was barred from travelling outside New Zealand unless he provided evidence of his return ticket to the court.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment and a fine of $100,000.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which laid the charges against Khattri and Everest Food, refused to comment while the matter was before the court.
The ODT also sought a response from the defendant.
"No comment," Khattri said.