The photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
The photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

Restaurant owners who allegedly paid minors to drink alcohol at a rival sashimi bar and then report it to authorities have been referred to prosecutors.

According to a recently aired episode of JTBC's "Sageon Banjang," a crime news program, a Daejeon restaurant owner identified as A, who runs a pojangmacha-style sashimi bar, received a three-day business suspension last year after being reported for serving alcohol to minors in November.

A said the two men who visited that day had been smoking outside before entering and appeared to be adults, so no ID check was conducted. The two customers turned out to be minors, however, and police were called after a report was filed following their drinking. A ultimately received the three-day suspension.

A later heard from a former employee of a nearby izakaya that its owner had deliberately sent the minors to trigger a suspension at the competing sashimi bar. The employee claimed the izakaya owner had said: "Find two people willing to work two hours for 500,000 won each — I'll pay 1 million won between the two of you."

One of the minors who had been drinking also told A in a phone call that they had been promised 500,000 won each and instructed to go drink and then file a report on their own. The minor said the money was left for them at a sauna the day after the report was filed.

Attorney Lee Ji-hoon, who appeared on the program, said police had referred two owners of the nearby izakaya to prosecutors on charges including violations of the Youth Protection Act. The pair are accused of contacting the minors through burner phones and directing them to drink at the rival establishment in order to get it suspended.

Charges of obstruction of business were not included, however. Investigators are understood to have taken into account that the minors had not actively deceived A about their ages and that restaurant owners are obligated to verify customers' ages themselves.

A said: "It is partly my fault for not checking IDs thoroughly, but adults dragged minors into a crime just to make money. The intent to obstruct my business was obvious, so it is disappointing that charge was left out — but I am relieved the truth came to light, even if belatedly."


choigo@heraldcorp.com