Deadline: David Clarke goes from tackling AFL players to accused criminals
As a Geelong midfielder he took on the best players in the AFL, now he’s up against the alleged money-launderers for an international drug trafficker and killer.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with the latest scallywag scuttlebutt.
Clarke of courts
A familiar face turned up when Echo taskforce investigators put alleged accomplices of gangland kingpin George Marrogi before court last week.
It was not the crooks who rang a bell but the police informant in the matter, former AFL 100-gamer David Clarke.
Clarke, once known as a prolific ball-winner for Geelong, put together some big stats at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
You could say he was playing for the police team against 15 characters accused of being part of money-laundering operations for Marrogi, an international drug trafficker currently in Barwon Prison over the execution-style murder of Kadir Ors in 2016.
Clarke has been a detective at Victoria Police crime command for some years, having earlier worked in the armed crime squad.
He is from an accomplished sporting family, being the son of a Geelong champion of the same name and brother of Olympic runner Georgie and another AFL player, Tim.
Someone else who has allegedly followed in a slightly different family tradition is Marrogi’s brother Jesse.
He is one of those charged over the laundering investigation involving his older brother, founder of the Notorious Crime Family gang.
That’s bad news for Jesse but at least it appears his relationship with Sabrine Maghnie, daughter of slain underworld figure Nabil Maghnie, is still going nicely.
Their union started despite some interesting history between her family and that of her beau.
In 2016, Nabil almost died in a shooting ambush which was allegedly the handiwork of George Marrogi. A case of in-laws and outlaws.
Gul a Wrestlemaniac (allegedly)
Huseyin Gul is a Melbourne wrestler accused of pulling a knife on a man in a financial dispute last May.
If the case is proven, it could also be alleged he is someone with great confidence about protecting his own welfare.
The bloke that police believe was the victim of Mr Gul’s aggression was an iron man named Nick Fyfield, whose surname rings bells. If not alarm bells, then at least those that signal the end of a round of boxing.
Nick’s father is Paul Fyfield, the well-connected Melbourne fight game identity who was for many years of intense interest to police investigating some huge armed robberies.
One of them was the infamous Richmond road gang heist of 1994 in which a crew dressed as road workers blocked traffic and relieved an Armaguard crew of millions, hijacking their armoured van with military precision.
It’s fair to say that Fyfield Snr., known to some as The General, was never charged in relation to any armed robberies, but is not to be trifled with unless you are absolutely certain you can maintain your own safety.
Foster has buckley’s chance of another win
The scandal surrounding the murky ownership of former top-line racehorse Azkadellia has again bubbled to the surface of the swamp, with conman Peter Foster promising to take colourful Ultratune boss Sean Buckley to court over vast sums of money.
Back in 2016, authorities banned Azkadellia from the track because they strongly suspected that Foster’s niece Arabella was not the bona fide owner of the great mare and that bad Uncle Pete was running the show.
Despite appearances to the contrary, racing authorities are wary of convicted crooks owning or controlling racehorses, a hardline attitude that forced a horse linked to the Mokbel crime family to be sold at public auction years before the Azkadellia debacle.
Azkadellia, trained by Ciaron Maher, won the $1m Queen of the Turf Stakes at Randwick in 2016, but her name was subsequently dragged through the mud through no fault of hers.
Racing Victoria banned the mare from racing soon after, despite a farcical attempt to “launder” her ownership with a bodgie sale to a lowly-paid stable employee. That manoeuvre cost the unfortunate trainer Maher a long suspension, but that wasn’t the end of the Azkadellia capers.
In 2019 a horse truck driver tipped off Buckley’s then stud manager, heavyweight debt collector Anthony Swords, that Azkadellia was to be quietly auctioned at the regular Echuca horse sale, where ponies, aged and unwanted horses are sold relatively cheaply, often to knackeries.
If there was a plan for the mare to change legal ownership at minimal cost at a lowly public auction, it went wrong when she was knocked down to a “mystery buyer” at an alleged price of $615,000.
She was then lodged at Buckley’s Barree Stud near Kilmore — where, according to Buckley’s lawyers, she has run up many thousands of dollars in (so far unpaid) agistment, feed, veterinary and breeding service fees. It is common in the horse world for stud owners and trainers to (legally) hold a lien over a horse until all money owed is paid.
Foster, with characteristic cheek, is not only not paying the stud, but demanding both the mare and a round $5m damages, presumably an ambit claim for the theoretically valuable foals he could have bred and sold since 2017. Someone should tell him that under the Kerrigan Act, he’s dreamin’.
According to the Australian Stud Book, in 2021 Azkadellia has had a filly foal by Buckley’s stallion Shamus Award, and another one last spring.
One of these fillies reportedly has only one eye, which would hurt her value as a sales yearling but still make her a potentially good breeding prospect.
One small mystery was cleared up this week when a former Buckley employee was going through his wallet and noticed Azkadellia’s thoroughbred identity card, which he had safely tucked away in 2019 and forgotten.
He immediately put the card in the mail to Ultratune HQ, which should receive it by midweek.
A static patrol
The 150 is Victoria Police’s radio code for an inspector, as in Dandenong 150 or Mildura 150.
Degani is a popular cafe chain with an outlet at the base of Victoria Police’s flash new headquarters on Spencer St.
So, how is it that one high-ranking officer has become known in the building as the Degani 150?
Could it be because of the enormous amount of time he spends drinking coffee and chewing the fat downstairs?
Living in the present
Last week, we ran a piece on a Frankston gentleman being placed under arrest while wearing the trendy Nena and Pasadena label.
We’ve subsequently been able to establish this fellow’s name.
It is Chris Kringle.
Simply, Simon is second-best
Former Victoria Police detective Simon Illingworth was once a pretty decent cricketer in metropolitan and country circles.
Even Illingworth wouldn’t argue his best cricketing days are behind him, but the name lives on via his daughter Milly.
Illingworth Jnr is leaving dad in her wake with her exploits flinging the leather at high speed for the national under-19 team.
She returned last week from the World Cup in South Africa where the Australians just missed a spot in the final with a narrow loss to England.
There appear to be big things ahead.
The cops who solve the crimes not even the victims want solved
When these cops turn up to hospital to see a shooting victim, they are met with a wall of silence. Their job is to crack the cases that even the victims don’t want cracked.
‘Devastated’ family of devoted couple killed by truck pay tribute
The grieving family of a Tower Hill farming couple — killed when a truck ploughed into their home early on Friday — have told of how the pair worked to “make the world a better place”.