Perth woman’s nightclub Nazi salute costs her $1000 fine and her job

A Perth woman has copped a $1000 fine and lost her job after she was arrested for performing a Nazi salute towards a German security guard when he kicked her out of a nightclub for being drunk last month.

Theresa Plunkett-Hill, 43, was sentenced on Thursday in Perth Magistrates Court for making a Nazi gesture that would be visible in a public place.

The court heard Plunkett-Hill had been on a night out on July 10 when she was asked to leave Connections nightclub because she had had too much to drink.

Plunkett-Hill claimed she did not understand why she had been asked to leave and began arguing about the decision out the front of the building with a German security guard.

She then raised her right arm and said, “heil Hitler” three times, which she claimed was not aimed at the nightclub employee.

After the police arrived, she performed the same movement again, and was arrested.

On Thursday, her lawyer told the court Plunkett-Hill had performed the gesture out of “frustration” and didn’t know it was illegal, adding she had “learnt a lot from this process”.

It was also revealed Plunkett-Hill had been let go from her receptionist role at an Indigenous organisation due to media coverage over the incident.

The bachelor of fine arts graduate suffers from ADHD and impulse control, the court was told, which led to her offending.

During her sentencing on Thursday, Chief Magistrate Steven Heath told Plunkett-Hill the charge carried a penalty of up to five years in prison, but he accepted she was not performing the salute as a member of a neo-Nazi group “or to be provocative to a Jewish group”.

“It was a silly reaction,” he said.

Plunkett-Hill was given a $1000 fine and a spent conviction.

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