Deadline: Surgeon calls on barrister brother in driving fine fight

A trainee heart surgeon pulled out the big guns in her fight against a $200 driving fine — and her excuse earned her praise from the magistrate.

As far as excuses go, saving a life is a pretty good one.

Melbourne’s top crime writers Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with their weekly dose of scallywag scuttlebutt.

JUST SAVING LIVES HERE, OFFICER

Court reporters see most things in a year on the beat among the mad, bad and sad, but this newspaper’s Genevieve Allison saw something new in Melbourne Magistrates Court last Tuesday.

It was a pair of high-achieving siblings appearing over a minor traffic offence, but with a difference.

After cardiothoracic surgical registrar Timea Jurth was charged with using her mobile phone while stationary, she enlisted her barrister brother, Levente, to represent her long-distance from Port Moresby.

The talented Timea Jurth is also part of the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Orchestra.

The magistrate was about to fine her $200 before barrister Jurth explained from PNG the reason for his sister using her phone: she was a heart surgeon on her way to an emergency operation at St Vincent’s and was urgently reading the surgical notes on her phone while at a red light.

A genuine life and death situation, all outlined in the six-page written submission he had prepared for his sister.

Not only did the magistrate scrap the fine and dismiss the charge, he praised Ms Jurth for her service to the community.

“Thank you for your work … to say I respect people like you is an understatement,” the magistrate said.

But there’s a limit to magisterial powers.

Before anyone could raise the issue of demerit points the surgeon stands to lose, the beak said: “I can’t do anything about them, so don’t even ask me.”

The police prosecutor chimed in that he, too, respected Ms Jurth’s work but “checking your phone while driving is illegal … so please don’t do it again.”

Let’s hope that this prosecutor doesn’t ever need heart surgery in a hurry.

There’s a joke to be wheeled about his not having a heart but we won’t be telling it.

Even sober columnists and their relatives sometimes end up in court.

NAMED, ASHAMED AND DEFAMED

In the past, irresponsible and irreverent crime reporters were too often guilty of coming up with nicknames for crooks that were downright irresponsible and irreverent.

That is why we have Russell “Mad Dog” Cox, Dennis “Mr Death” Allen and Abe “Mr Sin” Saffron.

Sub editors are not without sin when it comes to sinners, either. It was them who are responsible for “Mr Stinky” and “Mr Cruel” — two of the most misleading nicknames in the annals of crime reporting.

There was even a now-forgotten femme fatale who liked to spike the drinks of unsuspecting males and rob them. She was dubbed “Poison Ivy” by a reporter who should be deeply ashamed of himself for sheer fabrication.

But one of the best nicknames of recent years was, allegedly, the work of a northern suburban policeman.

This is “El Cheapo”, clearly a tribute to the notorious Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the diminutive Mexican drug lord currently in supermax prison in the USA.

The Sinaloan drug cartel is going quite well with the little general away but word is that our own poor man’s drug boss, “El Cheapo”, is one of several Comanchero-linked chappies sweating on what they might have divulged through the “trojan horse” encrypted AN0M app exposed when Operation Ironside was revealed a few weeks ago.

That brings us to the whispers that the other encrypted app network used in the underworld is getting past its use-by date.

It’s called CIPHR and it has been a favourite communications method for crooks for years, particularly those whose transnational drug trafficking interests preclude face-to-face contacts.

One reason for CIPHR’s plummeting popularity is the publicity when hundreds of crooks were arrested worldwide after investigators intercepted messages on the supposedly leakproof AN0M.

“El Cheapo” is just one of scores of crims who will be sweating bullets for a long time about indiscreet things dropped on AN0M.

The bad guys might have to go back to some more traditional communication techniques like saving 50-cent pieces for pay phones, although Telstra’s ongoing cull of those will make that a challenge.

Cautious old-fashioned crooks who never talked on phones or in cars or quiet rooms tended to meet at places like football grounds and racecourses, far from law enforcement ears.

Best of all was the swimming pool meeting, designed to dampen any bright ideas of carry a body-worn listening device.

Lawyer X, of course, allegedly wore “wired” jewellery that could be left on when nothing else was.

A case of the naked truth. Or perhaps just bare facts.

IS THERE ACTION FOR JACKSON?

For weeks, police have been keen to chat at any time that former boxer Richard “Action” Jackson felt he might recall any tiny detail that might help in the investigation of who killed his housemate Brendon Farrell in late May.

This is not Richard “Action” Jackson the Texas cruiserweight, quite apart from several other punchy Jacksons who have adopted the “Action” ring name. This is the Doveton “Action” Jackson, whose ring career is a little obscure and who is now separated from his fighting weight by at least 20 years and as many kilograms.

Doveton murder victim Brendon Farrell. Picture: Facebook

Ange Goussis was once a highly rated kickboxer.

Doveton’s favourite Jackson reputedly twice beat Ange “Goose” Goussis fair and square in the square ring — that’s the same Goussis currently serving a heavyweight sentence over a couple of notorious underworld murders for which he copped the blame while his co-offender copped big sentencing discounts.

Goussis was highly regarded as a kickboxer but had less success under Queensberry Rules, which might explain his results against the action man.

Brendon Farrell’s body was eventually found in a Noble Park backyard last Friday after lengthy searches of scrubland around Cranbourne were abandoned.

Robert Haapakoski, 49, and Terence Tiumalu, 30, were arrested and charged that day. Now, in late-breaking news, Richard Jackson has also just been charged.

ROLLING DOWN THE HUME

Plenty of Melbourne vehicle crime is linked to our gangsters’ counterparts in the Harbour City.

There has long been curiosity among police about why a Rolls Royce belonging to a high-profile Sydney entrepreneur was found in the lockup of one of our city’s most dangerous characters.

Investigators say it was almost as though the Roller was being hidden. Surely not.

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