WorkCover private investigator from Warrandyte caught out lying to boss about outsourcing work
A FORMER promising athlete turned private investigator tasked with spying on people for WorkCover has been caught out lying to the boss.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A DODGY private investigator tasked with spying on people for WorkCover has been caught out lying to the boss.
Mark John Holcombe, 43, of Warrandyte, once did laps with gold medal winning sprinter Cathy Freeman before injury ended his dreams of becoming a star.
When his wife ditched him in Bali, leaving him a single parent with three kids, Holcombe took to private investigating.
Today Holcombe admitted to misleading WorkCover by falsely declaring he’d worked on spy jobs he’d outsourced to another dick.
The Ringwood Magistrates’ Court heard Holcombe’s greed threatened to undermine any of the WorkCover matters he investigated between May and August last year if they ended up in court.
Holcombe was busted outsourcing work — contrary to his employment conditions — when his work diary didn’t add up.
Magistrate Marc Sargent condemned Holcombe’s behaviour, declaring he had a responsibility as a private investigator to provide accurate and reliable information.
“Your actions during the three month period constituted a breach of trust,” he said.
Holcombe, who already had his PI licence suspended by police, pleaded guilty to two charges of falsely representing the hours of surveillance he had conducted for the workplace authority.
He was convicted and fined $3000 and ordered to repay $7500 to WorkCover.
In his defence, lawyer Chris Triscott said Holcombe accepted he had fudged his work diary and employed another investigator to do his job.
He said Holcombe once had a promising athletics career ahead of him, becoming the U17 world record holder for the 800m sprint in 1990.
He went on to train with Nic Bideau alongside Freeman, but retired just before realising his Olympic dreams in Atlanta.
Mr Triscott said Holcombe had struggled with depression and had been left unemployed by his offending.