Jailed foreigners costing Queensland millions

MURDERERS, sex offenders, fraudsters and other hardened foreign criminals are costing Queensland taxpayers $43.5 million a year.

Thomas Lang, a US citizen with New Zealand residency, is charged with killing Brisbane socialite Maureen Boyce. Picture: Marc Robertson

MURDERERS, sex offenders, fraudsters and other hardened foreign criminals are costing Queensland taxpayers $43.5 million a year.

As the state’s prison population has soared to almost 1000 over the 7921 capacity, The Sunday Mail can reveal that one in 12 prisoners is a foreign national.

New Zealand-born inmates, such as fake Tahitian prince and Queensland Health fraudster Joel Morehu-Barlow, top the list of foreign criminals in Australian jails.

There are 27 foreigners jailed in Queensland for murder, while 22 are on remand for murder.

Of the most serious offences, 74 have been charged with homicide and related offences, 204 with assault, 69 with serious drug offences, 52 with fraud, 45 with break-ins, and 29 with robbery.

One prisoner is serving time for people-smuggling offences.

The former public servant was sentenced to 14 years’ jail in 2013 after being found guilty of defrauding the Health Department of more than $16 million.

There are 674 prisoners serving time in the state’s jails who identify as being born outside Australia and who have not been naturalised or do not have dual citizenship.

New Zealand-born criminals topped the list, with 308 in Queensland jails, followed by 45 from England, 42 from Vietnam, 20 from Samoa, and 19 from Papua New Guinea.

High-profile foreigners include accused murderer Thomas Lang, a US citizen with New Zealand residency, who is charged with killing Brisbane socialite Maureen Boyce.

Socialite Maureen Boyce was allegedly killed by American Thomas Lang.

He was committed to strand trial in October and has entered a plea of not guilty.

New Zealand-born fake Tahitian prince and Queensland Health fraudster Joel Morehu-Barlow is also serving time.

Many of the prisoners are not eligible to be deported as there is no prisoner exchange deal between Australia and their ­countries. These include New Zealand, Indonesia, PNG and Samoa.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade managed 391 cases of Australians in prison overseas in 2015-16.

A spokesman for the federal attorney-general said transfers under the International Transfer of Prisoners scheme were not automatic and ­required the consent of the Australian Government, the ­respective foreign government and the prisoner.