The whereabouts of an unknown number of accused criminals are now frantically being confirmed after a private bail service that uses GPS to track offenders shut down more than a week ago without the knowledge of police, the courts or justice authorities.
Alleged gang members, drug traffickers, violent offenders and white-collar criminals have previously been released into the community to be tracked by BailSafe Australia, a for-profit company responsible for monitoring GPS tracking devices that provide real-time locations for accused offenders, enforce curfews and report any breaches to police.
Private bail-monitoring services are approved by order of a judge.Credit: Louie Douvis
The service has become increasingly popular with accused criminals who can afford to underwrite the expensive GPS tracking and drug and alcohol rehabilitation services as an alternative to being remanded ahead of trial. The services are approved by order of a judge.
Questions from The Age have touched off a frantic scramble to discover how many people BailSafe was responsible for managing and their current status, information that was held only by BailSafe and in individual court records and police files.
Alleged drug traffickers, gunmen, arsonists and money launderers are some of the types of accused offenders who have been granted bail under the supervision of a private provider.
A Victorian government spokesperson said: “It is unacceptable that this private operator has failed to notify state authorities about these developments. We have alerted the relevant authorities, and the Office of Public Prosecutions are looking into this matter.”
Victoria Police said it had been unaware BailSafe had shut down. The explosion in the use of private bail providers has been stridently opposed by police in court proceedings.
The Magistrates Court of Victoria and the County Court of Victoria declined to comment.
The Supreme Court of Victoria said: “In the event a person on bail is unable to comply with a bail condition, the expectation of the court is that one or either party will bring the matter back to the court.”
The collapse of BailSafe has come about six months after the company became the target of a wider Victoria Police investigation into the operation of private bail services, which was sparked by alleged criminal activity involving drugs and misconduct in the monitoring of organised crime figures involved in the “tobacco war”.
In July, The Age reported that BailSafe and competitor AFTR were continuing to operate after their operators had been charged with serious criminal offences and despite the industry requiring no accreditation or oversight by state government authorities.
BailSafe owner and operator Jackson Oppy was charged with possessing methylamphetamine and steroids, and later with violating a personal safety intervention order. He is defending the charges.
Oppy, who appeared in court only days ago, could not be reached for comment. The BailSafe Australia website is now defunct, and Oppy’s corporate email no longer functions.
BailSafe apparently shut down without notice last week, sparking a crisis in New South Wales when it was discovered that about 20 alleged serious offenders may have gone without proper monitoring after failures in BailSafe’s GPS reporting procedures.
The apparent collapse of BailSafe was revealed to the NSW government and Department of Justice last week by The Daily Telegraph. According to The Daily Telegraph, an alleged drug importer who had been wearing a BailSafe monitoring device was later arrested in West Papua.
A GPS monitoring device.Credit: Supplied
The NSW government has called a review into the provision of private bail services, and NSW police have scrambled to identify the locations of the alleged offenders.
But their Victorian counterparts in the legal system and law enforcement remained unaware that the company had gone under until questions from The Age.
It is unknown how many alleged offenders were being monitored in Victoria by BailSafe, which was one of the most popular for-profit bail and rehabilitation services providers in Australia.
The company claimed to have appeared at more than 90 court proceedings nationwide in the last financial year.
A source familiar with BailSafe’s operations said the firm had previously been monitoring up to a dozen alleged offenders who were ordered by a court to wear a GPS monitor.
The news about the collapse of one of the country’s biggest private bail operators broke in Victoria on Wednesday morning after a social media post by the Law Society of NSW began circulating among Victorian-based lawyers and was sent to The Age.
The Law Society wrote to notify its membership that BailSafe “may have ceased operations without notice to the court, nor the accused persons currently being monitored by its devices”.
“[Department of Communities and Justice] has asked the Law Society to convey this information to members who may be involved in making submissions in bail proceedings or working on operational bail matters.”
Victoria’s private bail services have remained unregulated despite a slew of problems being exposed in the past year, including the apparent collaboration of one operator, Australian Forensic Treatment Rehabilitation, with serious organised crime groups to circumvent monitoring provisions.
In August, David Millar, the owner of private bail service Australian Forensic Treatment Rehabilitation (AFTR), was charged with 27 counts of perjury and perverting the course of justice after it was alleged he had provided a fake GPS watch to an organised crime “client”. Millar took his own life late last year.
The organisation, which has since closed, claimed in promotional materials that “99 per cent of AFTR clients are bailed or subject to court orders”, thanks to its work.
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