Police ‘may have’ led witnesses in alleged $3m Gold Coast boiler room fraud
A detective says witnesses in a multimillion-dollar Gold Coast boiler room fraud case ‘may have been led’ by police who collected their statements. Read the latest update from court.
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A detective has admitted witnesses in a multimillion-dollar Gold Coast boiler room fraud case “may have been led” by police who collected their statements.
Phil David Travers and Troy William Moncrieff are charged with one count each of fraud (dishonestly induce property of $30,000) and money laundering.
It is alleged they were part of a group of six people who are accused of scamming about $3 million from 178 people by selling bogus share-trading software.
During a committal hearing in the Southport Magistrates Court on Monday, Detective Sergeant Richard Millard from the Crime and Corruption Commission said he developed three “pro forma statements” for police to use in collecting witness statements.
“I wanted to make certain that people weren’t taking short cuts and that they were taking a statement using that pro forma to guide them,” Detective Millard said.
“Any police officer, particularly any detective who’s done the training, knows that you should not lead a witness.”
He told the court he thought police knew not to send the pro forma statements to witnesses.
“If it’s happened, I’m more than happy to acknowledge that the relevant aspects of that witness evidence is tainted,” Detective Millard said.
“It should not have happened.”
On day two of a committal hearing in August, defence barrister Angus Edwards raised concerns about the way police gathered witness statements.
“The way it appears in the structure of the (witness) statements, it is clear that police have sent these to these witnesses for them to fill in blanks,” Mr Edwards told the court at the time.
“My submission is that what has occurred here is police are sending out pro-forma documents, suggesting to witnesses the sorts of inducements that might have been applied to them to have them enter into the program.”
On Monday, Detective Millard said the use of pro forma statements was “not best practice.”
“In my statement, I acknowledge that if not handled correctly, in some instances, it may have led to a witness being led. That’s regrettable,” he told the court.
Mr Edwards compared three witness statements, which he described as having “exactly the same words”.
“The reason all three match is because they’re effectively a repetition of the pro forma statements. It’s a cut and paste job, isn’t it?” he asked Detective Millard.
“Yeah, it is,” the detective responded.
“Due to being so overwhelmed with the amount of work we had and my other duties, I did not sit there and review the statements.
“I would have picked up on this a lot faster, I suppose. I can’t change that now.
“I accept that (witnesses) may have been led. But I’m not saying they were,” Detective Millard said.
The committal hearing was adjourned to Friday, October 28 for a mention.
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