Cafe plan ends in court

A BITTER dispute between two Surfers Paradise businessmen during which a 74-yearold man was allegedly shoved so hard he was taken to hospital has been detailed in court.

Owner of Italian restaurant Baci, Bajram Jusufi, faced the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday charged with assaulting Joseph Ahn after a business deal involving an alfresco dining area at the Beachcomber Resort Surfers Paradise went sour.

Jusufi is charged with seriously assaulting a person aged over 60 and wilful damage following the alleged exchange in December 2016.

The court heard Jusufi took up a three-month lease with Mr Ahn on the area in front of the hotel on Hanlon St.

The plan was to turn the area into a coffee and ice cream shop over the Christmas holiday period.

Jusufi took up the lease on November 1 and spent thousands of dollars overhauling the area which included painting and connecting water and electricity.

A month later Mr Ahn confronted Jusufi and demanded to be paid the $450 rent and a deposit agreed upon which was not paid.

Jusufi argued he shouldn’t have to pay it because he had spent so much on the fit out.

But a day after the confrontation Mr Ahn woke at 6.30am to find Jusufi and another man loading fridges, electrical wiring, a coffee machine and other items into a truck.

“I confronted him again, I said if you take all this away you have to pay me unpaid rent first,” Mr Ahn saidthrough a Korean translator.

Mr Ahn said Jusufi then “struck” him in the “neck area”, at which point he said he would call police.

Mr Ahn said Jusufi “smirked at him” and replied “if you want go around and do business in Surfers you don’t want to do that” before allegedly pushing him in the chest causing him to fall backwards.

Defence barrister Peter Nolan, instructed by Hannay Lawyers, submitted to Mr Ahn that he had “made up” Jusufi’s threat because it did not feature in his police statement.

Mr Ahn denied he had made up the statement during a heated cross examination where Mr Ahn broke into English phrases at times.

The day-long trail included testimony from witnesses who said they saw Mr Ahn being assaulted after a verbal argument.

The trial was adjourned and has been listed for a mention on Thursday.