Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission investigate cop and bikie over alleged debt collection

A veteran policeman is being investigated over claims he and a bikie gang member worked together on a debt collection mission at a Melbourne pharmacy.

The PharmaDeal outlet in Ascot Vale is understood to have become the focus of an investigation by the state’s peak anti-corruption body.

A veteran policeman has been accused of teaming up with a bikie gang member in a debt collection mission on a suburban pharmacy.

The detective’s visit to the PharmaDeal outlet in Ascot Vale is understood to have become the focus of an investigation by the state’s peak anti-corruption body.

PharmaDeal’s operator Alex Puthenpurackal has in recent years been involved in a multimillion-dollar legal row over products intended for supply to Chinese markets.

At one stage, the officer and the bikie are alleged to have turned up at the business to arrange payment of a debt.

A complaint is understood to have been lodged with the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).

“As a matter of practice, IBAC does not comment on whether it has a complaint or investigation before it,” the organisation said.

Mr Puthenpurackal has in the past been accused of not delivering on promises to provide vitamins, milk powder and skincare products destined for the Chinese market.

Clients have previously attempted to litigate the matter and reportedly claimed his conduct had left them ruined, forcing them to sell homes and move interstate.

Angry messages were scrawled across the pharmacy last month.

The words “pay your debt $90k” and “pay now” were spray-painted on the front windows of the pharmacy in Ascot Vale.

A message scrawled on the front of the PharmaDeal store.

The messages were the latest sign of acrimony related to the Union Rd business.

It is now closed and customers are diverted to another pharmacy to collect prescriptions.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission records show Mr Puthenpurackal has operated a number of companies that have gone broke in recent years.

The most recent is Jestin Enterprises which trades as Pharmadeal Ascot Value Discount Pharmacy & Ascot Vale Discount Pharmacy.

Oz Healtheries, a company registered to an address in Box Hill, was successful in its bid to have a court appoint a liquidator to the company in February.

McGrathNicol liquidator Matthew Hutton is yet to detail how much creditors are owed and Mr Puthenpurackal is yet to submit a required directors report which will detail who is owed what.

Court records show Blackmores won a case against Jestin in October 2019 in which the court ruled the vitamins giant was owed $1.57m by the company.

Mr Puthenpurackal did not deny he owed Blackmores the money but rather tried to argue to had suffered a loss greater than the amount claimed due to Blackmore’s conduct.

The court rejected that argument.

Other companies owned and operated by Mr Puthenpurackal to have gone bust are Australian Vitamin Corporation, which liquidators appointed to it by a court in October 2019, and Pharmadeal International which was wound up in September 2020.

Mr Puthenpurackal could not be contacted for comment.