Sydney money lender Ian Lazar wants $10m for the months he was locked up despite no guilty verdicts

Sydney money lender Ian Lazar spent eight months in jail facing 28 criminal charges — all of which were withdrawn, dismissed or received verdicts of not guilty. Now he wants compensation.

Ian Lazar fighting for millions in compensation.

Sydney businessman Ian Lazar has commenced unprecedented proceedings in the Supreme Court against the NSW Police and Director of Public Prosecutions for compensation of up to $10 million for the various failed prosecutions against him over the last 10 years.

The malicious prosecution action follows the money lender spending eight months in jail and facing 28 criminal charges, all of which he says have been withdrawn, dismissed or received verdicts of not guilty.

“These proceedings absorbed over 10 years of my life, no amount of money will compensate the pain myself and my family have suffered. I hope my action will benefit others and recommendations are made” Mr Lazar exclusively told the Sunday Telegraph.

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“We have a broken justice system when police, backed up by the DPP, use witnesses with criminal records to make false allegations that lead to an innocent man being sent to jail, I look back and just find it all so unbelievable that it happened to me” he said.

Mr Lazar spent a total of eight months in maximum security awaiting countless Court hearings, and says he was falsely accused of having links to organised crime, perverting the course of justice, various frauds and stealing cars, gold bars and cattle.

Ian Lazar has commenced unprecedented proceedings in the Supreme Court against the NSW Police and Director of Public Prosecutions for compensation.

In 2014, police alleged Mr Lazar, then 43, offered to pay the debts of Nambucca Heads woman Amy Hewitt after hearing about her financial problems on A Current Affair television

program.

They accused Mr Lazar of transferring ownership of her home to one of his companies.

Mr Lazar spent 90 days in jail, was refused bail as he waited for the case to proceed and vehemently denied the fraud allegations.

He was found not guilty and awarded a Costs Certificate in his favour for these proceedings.

Mr Lazar said that the court found “after nine years, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees” and his reputation in tatters that police had no evidence to charge him.

“I had to face the world for almost a decade thinking that people believed I defrauded an 88-year-old woman I had never met,” he said.

“What makes it even worse is I wasn’t even in Australia at the time of the alleged fraud but holidaying in Cancun Mexico.

“The cops had to know this and yet they still went after me.”

Lawyer Raed Rahal.

Mr Lazar’s Statement of Claim names a former concert promoter, two NSW police and a reporter with A Current Affair, while setting out charges that resulted in Mr Lazar spending two stints totalling eight months in jail.

High profile lawyer Raed Rahal, who is representing Mr Lazar, said the Statement of Claim, among a variety of other allegations, claims police and the DPP had failed to disclose various aspects of their investigation including failing to disclose the alleged involvement of A Current Affair in an undercover operation to procure admissions from Mr Lazar.

The claim also alleges the police and DPP failed to disclose that a phone call between Ms Hewitt’s daughter and Mr Lazar “was a pretext phone call designed to procure admissions undertaken while Hewitt was present at the State Crime Command”.

While on bail over the Nambucca Heads case, Mr Lazar was charged with stealing a $30,000 Lexus from a music promoter and his wife.

According to the police, the Lexus ended up in the hands of a prominent standover man who Mr Lazar said he didn’t know.

Ian Lazar spent eight months in jail.

“I didn’t know this bloke, had never met him or heard of his name at this time”.

Mr Lazar will allege the investigation “failed to speak to a key witnesses who could shed light on these issues”.

This case never made it to trial, it was withdrawn by the DPP the day before the hearing.

Mr Rahal said “the statement of claim makes an array of allegations, most notably, that in each and every proceedings against Mr Lazar there was no reasonable or probable cause”.

“These were all cases which should have never been commenced or continued. What we will allege is this was a malicious campaign waged against him by NSW Police and supported by the DPP for over a decade,” Mr Rahal said.

“I doubt there is anything previously which compares to what Mr. Lazar was put through.

“This is something that every single resident of NSW should take interest in.

“This could have been anyone’s brother, father or husband. Hopefully this case will bring this type of conduct to the forefront and steps are taken to prevent it occurring again.”

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