Police officers, top barrister Michael Abbott QC to give evidence to inquiry into failed ICAC investigations

Police officers and SA’s top criminal barrister will give evidence to an inquiry examining several failed ICAC investigations. And other big names may be called.

Three police officers and prominent defence barrister Michael Abbott QC will tomorrow be the first witnesses to give evidence into a parliamentary inquiry examining botched ICAC investigations.

It can also be revealed former Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander QC, former police commissioner Gary Burns, incumbent Grant Stevens and several of his senior commissioned officers are all expected to be subpoenaed to give evidence.

The committee, entitled damage, harm or adverse outcomes resulting from ICAC investigations, is examining a number of investigations and prosecutions conducted by ICAC that have failed and were found to be flawed during subsequent prosecutions.

The first to be examined is the investigation and subsequent failed prosecution of eight police officers accused of stealing from crime scenes in 2014.

Former Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander and former police commissioner Gary Burns during a press conference about six SA police officers charged with theft or corruption. Those charges were later dropped or the officers were acquitted.

Dubbed Operation Bandicoot, each of the eight officers charged were subsequently either acquitted in the Supreme Court or had charges of abuse of public office and aggravated theft withdrawn as a result of their lawyers uncovering deficiencies in the evidence and flaws in the investigation process.

The joint investigation was conducted by former ICAC Bruce Lander QC and SAPOL’s Anti-Corruption Branch after a whistleblower wrongly alleged officers from the Sturt Local Service Area Operation Mantle drug investigation team were stealing property from crime scenes.

In March last year the Police Association lodged a claim for the reimbursement of more than $2 million in legal fees it paid representing six of the eight officers. The remaining two funded their own lawyers and are also seeking more than $1 million in costs.

One of the eight officers who will give evidence to the committee said he anticipated the committee would “examine all aspects of the failed investigation”.

“We want the public to know what has happened, we want the truth to come out,” he said.

“We want the public to know this wasn’t as it was portrayed, not for one second. They changed the charges against again and again just to try and keep their case going, how was this allowed to happen?

“This would never, ever be allowed to happen in any other prosecution, so we want to know why it was allowed so often in this prosecution.”

It is likely the officers involved in Operation Bandicoot will give their evidence in camera while the evidence of Mr Abbott, who represented one of the officers, is expected to be open.

One of the aspects of Operation Bandicoot that will be closely scrutinised by the committee is why an audit report into the handling of property at the Sturt property room ordered just days after the eight officers were charged was not provided to defence lawyers at the outset of their trials as required under disclosure rules.

The audit report produced a 113-page report that contained 80 recommendations concerning property handling and procedures. Significantly, it uncovered widespread incidents of breaches of general orders and widespread noncompliance of general orders related to property management that were worse than those involving the eight charged Mantle officers.

Another ICAC inquiry to be examined is the probe that resulted in five marine safety officers being charged with a variety of larceny offences. The charges against four were subsequently withdrawn, while one pleaded guilty to a minor offence and was fined.