Jittery meetings over hotel deals

AN ANXIOUS Michael McGurk walked through the doors of the Lord Dudley Hotel. It was lunchtime, but he declined to join a group of acquaintances.

AN ANXIOUS Michael McGurk walked through the doors of Paddington's Lord Dudley Hotel.

It was Thursday lunchtime, about 1.45pm, but he declined to join a group of acquaintances eating.

The businessman was nervous, jittery. His friend Richard Vereker was about to sit down to eat but Mr McGurk ushered him to a nearby table, away from everyone.

He wanted to talk.

"He was more nervous than usual," Mr Vereker, a former bookmaker, former butcher and a major Labor Party donor, told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

"He seemed uptight and just walked into the hotel, asked if he could talk to me, so we sat down two tables from the group."

Mr Vereker was one of the last people to see his mate alive.

Less than five hours later, Mr McGurk was executed outside his Cremorne home but not before telling Mr Vereker he was to meet a mystery man called The Black Prince.

As homicide detectives continued to interview the many enemies Mr McGurk had made through his wheeling and dealing, The Daily Telegraph has pieced together the last moments of the man known as a money lender of last resort.

Few people knew Mr McGurk as well as Mr Vereker, 68. Friends for 15 years, they met every week.

Last Thursday, he said Mr McGurk was consumed with plans to buy the Crest Hotel in Kings Cross and engage local identity John Ibrahim to look after security.

Mr McGurk had been trying unsuccessfully to encourage the millionaire developer Bob Ell to buy the place from developer Australand. He saw it as a way to make quick bucks, Mr Vereker said.

"He told me that day that he had to get this Crest Hotel stuff sorted out," the former hotelier said.

"He told me that he wished I could get Bob interested in buying it. Michael thought it was a cheap way to get get a good cash flow going."

Mr Vereker was speaking moments before he met Mr Ell for a business meeting at the swanky NSW Sports Club in Hunter Street in the city.

He said he had told Mr McGurk to drop off getting Mr Ell involved.

"Bob wasn't interested," he said.

The previous day, the Wednesday, the trio lunched at the Chop House in Bligh St with Mr Ell's son, Robert.

Mr Vereker said Mr McGurk said nothing about his life being in danger.

"Michael was a well-met bloke," he said. "He did talk the talk, and even if he didn't know what he was talking about, you'd believe he did."

About six months ago, Mr McGurk told him he had an audio tape that related to "property in Sydney's west". "Michael came to me and said: 'I've got this tape and it's got some information on it'," he said.

"He told me it involved a Labor Party heavy, and I told him that I didn't want anything to do with it. He'd implied that it had something to do with Ron Medich.

"I told him that tapes are dangerous things and he was getting into dangerous territory."

It was Mr Vereker who then organised a meeting between Labor heavyweight and former federal minister Graham Richardson and Mr McGurk to talk about the tape, which Mr McGurk had allegedly made during a meeting with Mr Medich, a millionaire property developer.

There is no suggestion Mr Medich is linked in any way to Mr McGurk's murder and Mr Richardson has since revealed most of the tape's content was inaudible.

Sources have told The Daily Telegraph it did not mention any politicians but talked about allegedly corrupt planning bureaucrats.

Mr Vereker said Mr McGurk had spoken of meeting Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim in recent weeks to discuss the deal about the Ibrahims taking over security at the Crest.

"He made out that he was friends with the Ibrahims," Mr Vereker said.

Adding to the lies and mystery surrounding Mr McGurk, Mr Ibrahim's solicitor Stephen Alexander last night said John did not know who McGurk was and had never met him.

Mr McGurk moved on. When he left Mr Vereker last Thursday, he said he was going to the Crest Hotel.

It is not known who Mr McGurk met at the Crest.

Mr McGurk was then due to visit the Republic Hotel to meet two associates including one man known as The Black Prince, a mortgage broker. Just hours later the father of four was dead.