Former Navy officer’s compensation fight after ADF investigation into false bikie links

A navy officer has revealed how his career was ruined after he was wrongly identified as linked to an outlaw bikie gang. Now he’s going to court to fight for compensation.

Exclusive: A navy officer’s career has been destroyed after the ­motorcycle enthusiast was wrongly identified as linked to an outlaw bikie gang, costing him his career, his dream home and his mental health.

Such was the Australian ­Defence Force’s determination to prove its case against Harley-Davidson rider Lieutenant Commander Tim Stroud – who has since been medically discharged – military police used a screen grab of a Facebook suggested “like” for the Rebels gang as evidence, not realising it was their own Googling history that ­attracted the prompt.

The ADF’s extraordinary two-year pursuit of Mr Stroud, before they realised their apparent multiple investigation errors and the case was dropped, will now be heard in court.

Former Navy Lieutenant Commander Tim Stroud and his wife Susan Little. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

A statement of claim for damages filed last week with the NSW District Court lists some of the Royal Australian Navy’s highest ranking officers including its chief Vice Admiral Mark Hammond and his predecessor Mike Noonan as party to proceedings.

The compensation case will analyse how the ADF’s Joint Military Police Force (JMPF) conducted investigations and review how the ADF views and defines Australia’s veteran patched motorcycle groups, often mistaken for or accused of association with outlaw ­motorcycle gangs.

Chief of the Royal Australian Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond. Picture: AFP

Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mike Noonan. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Mr Stroud was a maritime combat officer and served ­numerous overseas deployments including as a UN military observer when in May 2019 the JMPF launched an investigation into him.

The officer had been a member of various military motorcycle clubs and in 2017 established a Goulburn-based Southern Tablelands chapter of the Veterans Motorcycle Club (VMC).

Former Navy Lieutenant Commander Tim Stroud and his beloved bike. Picture: Supplied

The Veterans Motorcycle Club is well respected as a welfare group helping veterans. Picture: AAP

The respected club is recognised by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs as a welfare group aiding veterans and serving personnel.

But for reasons that could not be explained by the ADF, he was suspected of also being associated with the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang in Canberra and a bikie brawl in 2018 – claims based on an ­alleged police intelligence ­report noting the involvement of an unnamed veteran Navy officer.

This is despite NSW Police and other bodies later stating they had no information on then Commander Stroud at all.

According to filed court statements, the ADF investigation was dropped about four months later with no offence found.

Former Navy Lieutenant Commander Tim Stroud. picture: Supplied

Former Navy Lieutenant Commander Tim Stroud and his wife Susan Little. Picture: Supplied

But Navy suggested discrete “coercive administrative powers” be used to issue the officer with a Notice To Show Cause (NTSC) for dismissal after a Google search of a Facebook account for the VMC Southern Tablelands Chapter produced a suggested “like” for the Rebels MC for which Commmandder Stroud was to “be held ­responsible”.

“You couldn’t make this stuff up,” Mr Stroud said ahead of the court hearing next month.

“They obviously had no idea how Google algorithms work, it wasn’t my algorithms it was the person who made the complaint and his looking on Facebook at these sites.

“When it came up he screen-captured it and used that as evidence, ‘Look, he is looking at Rebels MC, he is looking at this and that’. But it wasn’t me – it was based on his (outlaw motorcycle gang) searching algorithm. I wasn’t the one searching these pages, it was him.”

The Notice To Show Cause was withdrawn in January 2020, but in March JMPF started a second investigation for prejudicial conduct and hindering an investigation when Commander Stroud was in contact with another VMC member who contacted him for legal advice.

A member of the Rebels Motorcycle Club. Picture Martin Ollman

Those claims were also dropped, in July that year.

Since that time however the former officer was medically discharged having suffered a mental and physical breakdown, which doctors have tied to the trauma of the two-year investigation.

It also led to him stalling the building of a new home due to uncertainty of future employment options.

“It’s not just the betrayal, they’ve destroyed my career, I had 10 years to run before retirement, I had a number of milestones I wanted to accomplish and everything has been taken away from me,” Mr Stroud said.

“They’ve made it their mission to make sure I could not hold a security clearance to hold any other government job with Defence … It’s about justice, it’s to hold these people accountable, to put them through essentially the same process that I’ve had to go through.

“They known they’ve done wrong … I’ve committed no ­offences but been absolutely ­ s--t canned for it and lost everything,” he said.

Mr Stroud’s lawyer, Paul James from Operational Legal Australia, is claiming aggravated damages, malice and reckless indifference and misfeasance in public office by the military police and the ADF.

Mr James said while civilian law enforcement had independent oversight and laws providing protections, the ADF had none. “The ADF act in ways contrary to Australian law and legal principles,” Mr James said. “The government needs to urgently do something, ­because sailors, soldiers and airmen are being harmed.”