Court: Police told witnesses ‘fill in blanks’ in alleged $30m Gold Coast fraud case

Police are accused of giving suggestions to witnesses when statements were gathered in regards to an alleged multimillion-dollar Gold Coast fraud scheme.

A barrister has accused police officers of giving suggestions to witnesses when statements were gathered in regards to an alleged multimillion-dollar Gold Coast fraud scheme.

Six people are accused of scamming up to $30m from 2000 victims by allegedly selling bogus share-trading software.

Phil David Travers, Troy William Moncrieff, Tamika Simpson and James Andrew Heward are charged with one count each of fraud (dishonestly induce property of $30,000) and money laundering.

Luke Malcolm Small is charged with one count of fraud and Robert Travers is charged with one count of money laundering.

Southport Courthouse. Picture: Jerad Williams

On day two of a committal hearing in the Southport Magistrates Court on Tuesday, defence barrister Angus Edwards raised concerns about the way police gathered witness statements.

“The way it appears in the structure of the (witness) statements, it is clear that police have sent these to these witnesses for them to fill in blanks,” Mr Edwards told the court.

“My submission is that what has occurred here is police are sending out pro-forma documents, suggesting to witnesses the sorts of inducements that might have been applied to them to have them enter into the program.

“You can see throughout the statements, the sorts of inducements that are there are the same appearing over and over again in exactly the same words.

‘The issue is, of course, if the police are providing to people suggestions of what to put in their statements. That’s just not the way statements should be taken.”

Mr Edwards said witnesses should give their own version of events.

He told the court one witness had said they were sent a “pro-forma statement”.

Magistrate Kerry Magee said she had noticed an identical use of phrases across the statements.

Prosecutor Gavin Reece said further inquiries needed to be made with police over the accusations made about the “pro-forma issue”.

The committal hearing was adjourned to Wednesday, August 31 for a mention.

Witnesses have been called to give evidence over an alleged multimillion-dollar Gold Coast fraud scheme. Generic image.

Witness gives evidence against accused $30m fraudsters - August 29

A witness called to give evidence over an alleged multimillion-dollar Gold Coast fraud scheme has told a court she purchased a share-trading software, but later reported it to authorities because it wasn’t “yielding any returns”.

Six people are accused of scamming up to $30m from 2000 victims by allegedly selling bogus share trading software.

Phil David Travers, Troy William Moncrieff, Tamika Simpson and James Andrew Heward are charged with one count each of fraud (dishonestly induce property of $30,000) and money laundering.

Luke Malcolm Small is charged with one count of fraud and Robert Travers is charged with one count of money laundering.

Ten witnesses were expected to be cross-examined on day one of a 13-day hearing in the Southport Magistrates Court on Monday.

Witness Rebecca Atkins, who appeared via videolink, told the court she purchased a share-trading software from company One Wealth.

Southport Courthouse. Picture: Jerad Williams

Customers were promised a full refund if they didn’t make the profits they were promised, it was alleged in court.

“They had me download information from another site ... and I was to upload that information into the software and run a stock report and from that,” Ms Atkins told the court.

“The top five to 10 shares that were between three to four cents a share, I was to invest ... and generate stock reports to send (the company) to show that I was following the outlined steps.”

Ms Atkins told the court she spent $1000 per share package for the first 12 months then reduced this to $500 thereafter.

She said she used the share-trading software for a year.

“I didn’t use it after that because it wasn’t yielding any returns,” she said.

Ms Atkins told the court she didn’t hear back from the company and then contacted the Office of Fair Trading.

Defendants not involved in cross-examination, including Small, Heward, Simpson and Robert Travers, had their matters adjourned to the last week of the hearing because they were not involved in the cross-examination process.

Magistrate Kerry Magee adjourned the matters to October 24.

The matter continues in court tomorrow.

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