Casey councillor Sam Aziz told lobbyist ‘we’ve taken over Casey’
Former mayor Sam Aziz was secretly recorded telling a political lobbyist that he was working with a prominent businessman to take over the Shire of Yarra Ranges “the same way we’ve taken over Casey”.
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A “greedy” former mayor has claimed he was “consulting” with a prominent businessman to take control of Yarra Ranges council “the same way we’ve taken over Casey”.
Besieged Casey councillor Sam Aziz was covertly recorded telling political lobbyist and former Liberal MP Lorraine Wreford that he was working with the businessman to “make that happen”.
“Basically Yarra Ranges want to take it over, the same way we’ve taken over Casey,” Cr Aziz said.
“And there’s another businessman we are working with closely to make that happen.”
Cr Aziz is later heard in the conversation saying: “We only really need to get two elected to get a majority of votes.”
At the end of the covertly-recorded meeting at Williams St’s Little Billy cafe on February 1, Cr Aziz asked how Ms Wreford was going to give him cash without it looking like “a drug deal”.
Ms Wreford told the commission that she “hated” meeting with Cr Aziz but that he would “incessantly” ring her until she turned up to deliver money.
She later agreed that Cr Aziz viewed developer John Woodman as a “bottomless ATM”.
“He seemed very desperate for money,” she said.
Commissioner Robert Redlich questioned whether the conversation made it clear that Cr Aziz was being bribed, to which Ms Wreford said: “Yeah, I guess it does, yes. I didn’t look at it like that at the time, yes.”
CASH PAID TO ‘GREEDY’ AZIZ WAS ‘BRIBE’
A multi-millionaire developer’s political lobbyist has stunningly told an anti-corruption commission that cash payments to a former Casey mayor amounted to a “bribe” for favourable planning decisions.
Former Liberal MP-turned-lobbyist Lorraine Wreford said she felt “uncomfortable” running monthly payments to “greedy” councillor Sam Aziz.
IBAC has heard that Cr Aziz “loaned” developer John Woodman $600,000, wheeled into a meeting in a suitcase.
It is at the centre of a probe into allegations of planning-related corruption at Casey Council.
Cr Aziz was also allegedly being paid thousands of dollars a month as a “smart city” consultant and through a racing company under a deal that claimed he would procure Chinese buyers for thoroughbreds.
The anti-corruption commission heard Ms Wreford delivered Cr Aziz $15,000 a month, with a $40,000 payment late last year or early this year.
She then delivered him $2000 cash a month, which she said she believed were part of “highly-unusual” but “legitimate” repayment of a loan.
But under questioning, she conceded that she later realised that payments amounted to “a bribe”.
“I think it’s making decisions or trying to get favourable decisions to get planning outcomes at Casey,” she said.
Ms Wreford also said that she was shocked at how “greedy” Cr Aziz had become.
“I would say over the last 18 months, I have been quite distributed about how greedy Cr Aziz has become,” she said.
He had allegedly demanded he be paid $600,000 – the same amount as he had given Mr Woodman to hold – through “various mechanisms”, including the sale of his house.
The commission heard that Cr Aziz threatened to withdraw his vote if he was not paid.
Ms Wreford said that when she raised concerns about “greedy” Cr Aziz with Mr Woodman, the developer responded by saying: “there were two at Casey like that”.
She said Mr Woodman was referring to Cr Aziz and Cr Geoff Ablett.
Cr Ablett has been accused of receiving $330,000 in payments from the developer.
Ms Wreford said she questioned Cr Aziz on numerous occasions about needing to declare a conflict of interest on planning matters relating to Mr Woodman.
“He told me in great depth about how he was going to declare a conflict of interest,” she said.
“When he told me he was going to, I took him at his word.”
Ms Wreford said “I can’t tell you how shocked I was” when she discovered about three months ago that he had never made the declaration.
“You can lead a horse to water, you can’t make them drink,” she said.
Meeting notes may have been destroyed: lobbyist
Former Casey Mayor Sam Aziz allegedly told a “paranoid” political lobbyist that they needed to “get our stories straight” after giving evidence to an anti-corruption commission.
Ms Wreford told IBAC this morning that Mr Aziz’s wife “begged her” to meet with her husband in the wake of his evidence.
Ms Wreford said the pair met in a cafe, where Mr Aziz allegedly said: “we’ve got to get our stories straight”.
The state’s anti-corruption commission is probing allegations of planning-related corruption at Casey Council.
The commission has heard that Mr Aziz wheeled a suitcase full of $600,000 into a meeting with developer John Woodman as a “loan”.
Ms Wreford acted as Mr Woodman’s political adviser.
“That conversation (with Mr Aziz) continued in that he said to me that I needed to go and tell Mr Woodman that the amount that his loan was for was $370,000 and no other amount,” Ms Wreford said.
“I said to him, “are you saying you lied to IBAC?” and he said “yes”.
Ms Wreford later told the commission that Mr Aziz walked out of the meeting, “upset” that she would not lie to IBAC, leaving behind his summons document.
Counsel assisting the commission, Michael Tovey QC, quizzed Ms Wreford about whether she took notes of the meeting with Mr Aziz and whether she later destroyed them.
After initially denying she took notes, she conceded that she may have destroyed them.
“I honestly don’t know but I will say this: since this has all started, I have become incredibly paranoid and understand that when you write something down or text something it can be misconstrued,” she said.
“I wouldn’t deliberately destroy something that was evidence but I may destroy something if I think it can be misconstrued.
“I’ve become paranoid since this all started.”
Ms Wreford was a Casey councillor until 2010, when she was elected the Liberal Member for Mordialloc in Melbourne’s southeast.
The commission heard Mr Woodman donated $10,000 to her election campaign.
Ms Wreford lost the seat to Labor’s Tim Richardson in the 2014 election.
IBAC has been told during public hearings that Ms Wreford acted as a go-between, who delivered monthly cash payments from Mr Woodman to Mr Sam Azis.
Former Liberal MP and political lobbyist Lorraine Wreford has arrived to give evidence at @ibacVic’s probe into planning-related corruption in Casey.
— Monique Hore (@moniquehore) November 26, 2019
IBAC has previously heard she delivered cash payments, codenamed the package, to Cr Sam Aziz @theheraldsun https://t.co/lSkul0eDkw pic.twitter.com/zrXCGjrS19
Mr Woodman told the commission that the deliveries, codenamed the package or the suitcase, were interest repayments on $600,000 “loan” from Mr Aziz.
Surveillance photos snapped in January this year showing Ms Wreford and Mr Woodman meeting at a St Kilda Rd patisserie, where cash to be given to Mr Aziz was counted.
The commission also heard that the lobbyist was on a $3000-a-month retainer, which was later upped to $5000.
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She was also promised a European holiday for her and her boyfriend, Bernard Lee, if a major development in Cranbourne West was approved.
In a twist, the couple is also accused of setting up a scheme in which Mr Aziz was paid $5000 a month to procure Chinese buyers of racehorses for a company called Spicer Thoroughbreds.
Mr Woodman conceded last week that he used Spicer Thoroughbreds to “funnel” money to Mr Aziz.
“Mr Aziz was working for Spicer Racing to find clients to buy horses, and Spicer Racing asked if I would participate in part payment of that venture,” he said.