John Poynton and Barry Felstead snapped at Nedlands eatery Steve’s before Crown Casino Perth royal commission

Two of the most prominent witnesses in the Crown Casino Perth royal commission caught up at posh Nedlands eatery Steves on the eve of the resumption of the high-stakes probe. Former Crown Burswood chairman John Poynton and Australian Resorts chief executive Barry Felstead were snapped together at the western suburbs institution on Friday night. The pair — who characterised the encounter as an innocent “drink after work” between longstanding mates — then left together in Mr Poynton’s Mercedes around 8.30pm. Mr Poynton, who has been called to give evidence to the royal commission from Wednesday, strongly rejected any suggestion he and Mr Felstead had met to discuss the probe. “We have plenty of choices of venue, not least of which is our respective houses, and if we were trying to hide we wouldn’t have been meeting at Steves,” Mr Poynton said. “It had nothing to do with getting our story straight — I’m not even sure what the concept is. We are required under oath to tell the truth. It was a drink after work. (Mr Felstead) lives on the way home. He got an Uber there. I had a glass of wine and dropped him off. We’ve got nothing to hide — quite the contrary, I’m trying to be helpful.” Despite his claims he was spared personal criticism in last year’s scathing NSW Bergin Inquiry — which found Crown’s Perth and Melbourne operations had “facilitated” money laundering — Mr Poynton was eventually forced to resign from the Crown board and as director of Crown Perth. The findings of that inquiry — which ruled Crown was not fit to hold a casino licence in Sydney — spawned separate royal commissions in Perth and Melbourne — with the company at risk of losing both licences. Mr Poynton said he was “happily looking forward to giving evidence on Wednesday” and said he had been “denied natural justice” in being forced out of Crown despite not being the subject of adverse findings during the NSW inquiry. Mr Felstead — who served as CEO of Australian Resorts between 2013 and last October — said the catch-up had “nothing to do” with the royal commission. “He is a mate of mine and it was as simple as that,” he said. Crown Perth director and Seven West Media WA chief executive Maryna Fewster and former director Tim Roberts will also appear this week.