Missing CCTV footage of mate drinking at golf club tendered at manager’s alleged tampering court case

THE missing CCTV footage which helped a real estate agent have a drink-driving charge dismissed and then successfully suing police for wrongful arrest has been tendered into court.

• Mate faces jail over drink-driving deceit
• Man denies he confessed to his dad’s murder in a letter he sent to his wife

IT is the missing CCTV footage that disappeared, helping a high-flying real estate agent have a drink-driving charge dismissed and then successfully sue police for wrongful arrest.

Now the footage which shows Central Coast property seller Bernard Nash drinking at least five beers in two hours at Shelly Beach Golf Club before returning to the carpark has been tendered in court after the club’s former general manager admitted concealing the evidence from police.

According to police facts tendered in court, Bernard Nash claimed in Wyong Local Court in 2012 that he had drank no more than three light beers over one and a half to two hours at the club on the afternoon of October 13, 2011.

The full CCTV footage showing Bernard Nash buying five beers in two hours at Shelly Beach Golf Club.

It is alleged Nash repeated that evidence three years later when he successfully sued police for more than $125,000 for wrongful arrest.

However CCTV footage which was never provided to police officers for the criminal case and the subsequent civil claim shows Nash getting a fresh beer roughly every 20 minutes over two hours and carousing with mates in the lounge bar.

The footage then shows Nash leaving the club 30 minutes after he began drinking his last beer and walking into the carpark while fishing something out of his pocket.

CCTV of Bernard Nash drinking at Shelly Beach has been tendered to court.

Police allege he drove out of the club in a maroon Holden Commodore and was followed by a highway patrol police officer. He was later charged with driving under the influence and resist an officer in the execution of his duty.

The footage was tendered at the sentencing hearing for the club’s former general manager and one-time head of Central Court Tourism Craig Martin Ellis who has pleaded guilty in Downing District Court to two charges of tampering with evidence with intent to mislead a judicial tribunal.

Nash has been charged with four counts of perjury, however he has not entered pleas to those alleged offences.

Craig Martin Ellis has been charged with tampering with evidence with intent to mislead to judicial tribunal. Picture: Richard Noone

Agreed facts tendered at Ellis’ sentencing hearing state that after Nash’s arrest for drink-driving police asked the club for CCTV footage from that afternoon.

A few days later Nash visited Ellis at the club.

After Nash’s visit Ellis edited the CCTV footage and provided police with only Nash’s first three purchases at the bar, as well as Nash arriving and leaving the club.

In 2013, police again went to Ellis seeking the CCTV footage, this time for their defence case against Nash’s lawsuit.

The court facts state Ellis again only provided footage of Nash purchasing three beers but one of the drinks was purchased at different time to the original CCTV footage provided to police for the criminal prosecution.

He was also asked to provide information on Nash’s membership activity record which showed loyalty points accrued at the bar but omitted several purchases made on October 13, 2011.

Both men are due to return to court later this month when Ellis is expected to be sentenced.