Northern Beaches Suns AFL Club: Bradley Craig McLaren extradited to Victoria over $1m will

A former senior coach at a Townsville AFL club has been arrested and extradited back to Victoria over ‘serious allegations’ he tried to hide a $1 million will.

A former senior coach at a Townsville AFL club has been arrested and extradited back to Victoria over “serious allegations” he tried to hide a $1 million will.

Bradley Craig McLaren, 52, was arrested by Australian Federal Police on Wednesday after a warrant was issued by Justice Kate McMillan.

Townsville Magistrates Court heard McLaren was in contempt of a civil proceeding in Melbourne Supreme Court.

The court heard an executor of McLaren’s aunty’s will had brought an action against him after he failed to attend a hearing in Victoria.

McLaren is a former senior coach at Northern Beaches Suns AFL Club.

Australian Government Solicitor Daniel Welsh presented the interstate arrest warrant and additional documents to Magistrate Vivianna Keegan which contained the allegations on Wednesday.

Former Northern Beaches Suns AFL Senior Coach Brad McLaren

Magistrate Keegan said there were “serious allegations about a huge amount of money and another allegation that you intentionally concealed a will and then there’s a Supreme Court order (in May) to provide an account for monies received and you haven’t followed that”.

“It’s been described as a serious matter … (while) they had been successful at getting some funds back, there’s still a large amount missing and it’s imperative that we find you and get the details and passwords of where the plaintiff’s funds may be,” she said.

“There was a disobedience of court orders, as well as not appearing, and then there was a discussion about how they would get you back to Victoria by way of a warrant.”

Duty Lawyer Helen Armitage said McLaren hadn’t been aware proceedings had reached such a “heightened state”, and believed he still had time to respond to the court’s directions.

He was also unaware his Victorian lawyers had withdrawn from the case.

Applying for bail, Ms Armitage said her client intended to make arrangements for the care of his teenage daughter, collect the necessary information, and board a flight from Cairns to Melbourne on Thursday.

Brad McLaren is involved in a court case involving a $1m estate.

She said his time in the watch-house highlighted the seriousness of the situation and given that he had no criminal history, there was nothing to suggest he wouldn’t comply with the bail order.

Magistrate Keegan said there were allegations of significant dishonesty as well as contempt of court orders where it was alleged he “deliberately concealed a will in order to substantially increase his distribution from an estate”.

She said there were also questions about his administering of funds before his aunty’s death.

“My difficulty Mr McLaren is while I accept you don’t have a (criminal) history, the allegations are ones of dishonesty … where you are asking the court to accept your word for it,’ Ms Keegan said.

“The Supreme Court doesn’t take these steps lightly.

“Given the allegations and the various attempts to make you provide the information, and co-operate, and you haven’t done so, the risk would be too great to grant you bail.”

She granted approval for AFP officers to transport him to Victoria on Thursday morning to appear in the Melbourne Supreme Court at a later date.

Originally published as Northern Beaches Suns AFL Club: Bradley Craig McLaren extradited to Victoria over $1m will