Former Australian cricketer shuts restaurant after alleged kidnapping

Former cricketer Stuart MacGill and partner Maria O’Meagher have been forced to close their Neutral bay restaurant.

Greek restaurant, Aristotle, has suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic with significantly less income than usual and rising rent fees.

“Unfortunately we have had no success with [rent negotiations] as [our landlord has] decided that Covid is over and wanted to increase the rent, so our only action being to close the doors,” the pair wrote in a statement.

A lack of customers wasn’t the only issue the pair was dealing with.

“Additionally, as you would be aware, we and our families have also been under a great deal of personal stress with what has happened to Stuart.”

This part of the statement referred to the strange circumstances that saw MacGill allegedly kidnapped by four men in April and held at gunpoint over a drug dispute.

Marino Sotiropoulos, O’Meagher’s brother, was one of the men allegedly  involved.

Sotiropoulos was arrested for his part in the plot and charged with take/detain in company with intent to get advantage occasioning actual bodily harm, participating in a criminal group, and supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.

Also involved were Son Minh Nguyen and brothers Frederick Schaaf and Richard Schaaf.

Last month a court heard that in the days after the incident, the kidnappers were still pressuring MacGill for $150,000 in the hopes to recover money from a drug deal gone bad.

MacGill was cleared of any allegations that he was involved in illegal activity with police  saying he was “purely a victim” in the incident. 

15th June 2021