Footy legend’s job for persuasive Gatto

When Carlton legend Peter Bosustow needed to chase down some money he turned to Mick Gatto’s formidable powers of persuasion. Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with the latest crime buzz.

Buzz once called in Mick Gatto to help track down some cash.

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

BUZZ SORE OVER DEBT STAND-OFF

It’s a while since footy legend Peter “The Buzz” Bosustow engaged Mick Gatto to chase down money he says is owed by Perth developer Darren Taggart.

Gatto crossed the Nullarbor in an attempt to reach some kind of resolution, including a meeting which Bosustow tells us was “quite uncomfortable”.

But even Gatto’s formidable powers of persuasion were not enough to help Carlton’s former high flyer.

Buzz says he never got the money, which related to a property deal in which former cricket great Adam Gilchrist also scored a duck.

Bosustow says he insisted everything be above board when Team Gatto fronted in the wild west.

He wanted a Taggart bank cheque, not his head or even a few fingers. No point having the fuzz chasing the Buzz if things went awry.

AFL legend Peter Bosustow. Picture: Theo Fakos

Bosustow in his high-flying Carlton days.

“They went the legal way. That’s the way I wanted it,” says the man who could once jump his own height to take a grab in the goalsquare.

At the time, the developer said the contract stated ­Bosustow’s company had failed to get finance for the property — a claim “Buzz” denies.

Now Bosustow is unhappy to see that Taggart is involved in a major development with a local council.

“What a gall he’s got. He still owes us,” says Bosustow.

“There was more than enough money for everyone to live comfortably.”

Bosustow has since hit other financial hurdles with a big loss linked to the collapse of home lease scheme operator Sterling First.

Former Carlton teammates, including Steve Kernahan, David Parkin, Alex Marcou and Ken Hunter, have donated memorabilia and time to help him.

A fundraising roast was organised this month for the Premiership hero, who once won goal-of-the-year and mark-of-the-year in the same season.

It was to have been held last Friday but has been postponed because of Covid-19.

LAND OF MILK AND FUNNY MONEY

Christmas dinner will be interesting for the Eddy clan of Cobram this year. No guns, no drugs, no cash to splash, and a couple of turkeys locked away.

Pa Eddy got sprung crossing the bridge from Barooga with (allegedly) a boot full of funny money and a pistol, and the billy lids are either under arrest or under a cloud following rolling police raids on outlaw bikie outfits in Murray Valley towns.

For a sleepy dairy district, Cobram has had its share of scallywags.

Exhibit A is David Miechel, the bent drug squad cop quietly released from jail in 2018 after doing time for his part in the abortive attempt to rob a Mokbel drug house of millions in cash and drugs at Oakleigh in 2003.

Police allege Josh Eddy, pictured at his Cobram car wash business, was the ‘ringleader’ of a drug operation and his family were ‘secondary members’.

Miechel, whose hardworking family still lives around Cobram, was with the ill-fated Terry Hodson that night.

The third musketeer was allegedly a bent cop, Paul Dale, who failed to show up for the heist. Hodson informed on Dale and was soon murdered at home in Kew (with his wife Christine).

Miechel suffered a police dog bite, apparently developed amnesia and did 12 years in silence, mostly with sex offenders in the “dogs’ jail” at Ararat.

Another rogue with Cobram links is “Dollar Bill” Vlahos, the silver-tongued scammer who ran the multimillion-dollar betting rort that embarrassed a lot of “investors”.

Bill’s everloving wife Joanne Jones came from Cobram, and he had a great strike rate among mug punters in the border towns.

The fall of the Eddys does not shock one Deadline acquaintance, who recalls a schoolyard fight with a young Eddy in year 8 at Cobram High.

The winner became a mild-mannered sports reporter and the loser became an even bigger loser — a bikie fall guy.

COOL HAND LUKE NOT SO CUDDLY THIS WEEK

A year is a long time in woke politics.

When Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius was talking about a big illegal gathering in the middle of the pandemic last winter, he was as cuddly as a toy wombat and as earnest as a Sunday school teacher asking the kiddies to play nicely.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius. Picture: NCA NewsWire

“We absolutely understand the sentiment and the anger that lies behind that and we are very keen to support the community in giving a voice to their concerns,” he cooed then, apparently thinking (wrongly) that it’s kosher for a public servant to air private views.

But when another huge illegal gathering happened in Melbourne last weekend, no more Mr Nice Guy.

Tough Luke fronted up, full of strident language condemning protesters he likes to goad as loonies in “tinfoil hats”.

Why the big difference?

The backflip, of course, is because last year’s illegal gathering was a Black Lives Matter protest — whereas last weekend’s illegal gathering was an anti-lockdown protest.

In other words, the gatherings were identically brazen breaches of the rules imposed to protect us all.

Thousands of Melburnians protesting Covid restrictions in Melbourne’s CBD. Picture: Mark Stewart

You can bet some of the same anti-social, exhibitionist ratbags (to borrow Health Minister Foley’s word) were at both, just because they love confronting cops and getting filmed for TV news.

But in June 2020, cuddly Cornelius (like Premier Dan) was too nervous of a BLM backlash to be even mildly critical of ratbags who flagrantly defied common sense Covid-19 restrictions. This time, they reckon they’re safe to talk tough.

The police brains trust should ponder the idea that the key to policing is consistency and fairness — meaning that going easy on one group tends to “legitimise” the behaviour of others who later choose to break the same rules.

And here’s a message from frontline police to their bosses: please don’t insult protesters gratuitously because of the potential to make an unpleasant job even more difficult and dangerous for cops trying to enforce the rules on the street.

Just saying.

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TATTS IN COURT? FINK NUFFINK OF IT, BRO

When outlining proposed bail conditions for senior Fink member Sione Hokafonu last Tuesday in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, prosecutor Justin Lewis said the bikie should be prohibited from wearing, or displaying, any outlaw motorcycle gang insignia.

But, the prosecutor added generously, “this condition does not prevent the displaying of existing permanent tattoos to your body.”

Big Fink barrister Philip Dunn couldn’t resist a chuckle.

“I’ve not heard that one before,” he said.

Magistrate Tara Hartnett couldn’t resist referring to it when finalising bail conditions: “I’m not sure I will make any condition about tattoo removal.”

Much laughter.

Nearly as much as when funny “Dunny” had to correct himself after calling the Finks “the Finkles”.

A real rib tickler.

SLUG GATE BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN SOME

Of all the stories in the naked city (as opposed to the “button man” up the bush) the one that really gets attention is “Slug Gate”, possibly because it shows people at their worst — and their best.

Slug Gate is the ongoing saga that started when a Dandenong Council health inspector allegedly planted a garden slug in the pristine premises of I Cook Foods, an act reeking of commercial sabotage orchestrated from above.

The scandal has been running for two years, getting slime on a lot of people — whether innocent, guilty or stupid — caught in a web of deceit linking Dandenong and Knox councils, the Health Department (including Brett Sutton), the state government and Victoria Police, all desperately playing “pass the parcel” before the manure really hits the fan.

The fistful of dollars for the I Cook employee who lost her job.

Slug Gate has also brought out the best in some people. Not just I Cook Foods owner, Ian Cook, and the two former detectives who have investigated the case for him, but members of the public.

Such as the anonymous businessman touched by the plight of the profoundly deaf woman who lost her job at I Cook Foods because of the fallout from the planted slug, and who could not up payments on the house where she lived with her aged parents.

That businessman turned up last week to pass a parcel of his own: a bunch of large-denomination banknotes to help the deaf woman’s family with food and rent.

Perhaps the mystery benefactor should take over running Dandenong Council if some people there find alternative employment making number plates.

DOLLAR DEFENDS ALLEGED MONEY LAUNDERER

A Queensland man charged with money-laundering offences has engaged a lawyer named Liam Dollar to make sense of his defence.

Anand Mahendra Rathod, 37, is accused of swindling up to $3 million from his victims — mostly elderly people — as part of an alleged cold call scam run from a jewellery store south of Brisbane.

He is also alleged to have laundered another $97,000 while on bail this year.

Lawyer Dollar said his client would abide by a curfew, report every day to police, wear a GPS tracker … and, perhaps unsurprisingly, could also put his hands on a $20,000 surety.

A good Rathod will do that.