Racing fraud Vlahos claims he was ‘humiliated’ by court-ordered psychiatric evaluation
Racing identity Bill Vlahos, who is facing jail for conning punters out of $17.5 mil, claims his human rights were violated during a court-ordered psychological assessment.
Police & Courts
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Racing fraud Bill Vlahos claims he was “humiliated” and his human rights were violated during a court-ordered psychological assessment which he said was repeatedly interrupted by prison officers and cleaners.
Vlahos, who is facing jail for conning $17.5 million from 71 victims of his The Edge punting club scam, told a court his mental health evaluation was not held in a private room and was disrupted on no less than three occasions lasting up to 45 seconds each.
The racing identity claims this resulted in a “breach of his privacy and inhumane treatment” and has issued a charter notice to the Attorney-General Jill Hennessy and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.
But lawyers for Forensicare have suggested Vlahos decided to complain about the assessment the following day when he “realised the report … was not going to help (him)” in his pre-sentence plea hearing.
The move by Vlahos will delay the racing identity being sentenced for his five-year fraud.
Giving evidence from Margoneet Correctional Centre, Vlahos said he was being probed about highly-sensitive issues including his depression during the February 25 interview when various people, including cleaners and prison officers, barged into the room chatting.
Vlahos claims at one point other prisoners began noisily stacking chairs just five metres from where he and the psychologist were sitting in the visitors’ area.
Vlahos said psychologist Christopher Drake didn’t tell people to leave or request to move to a more private area.
“I was uncomfortable and unsafe and felt humiliated with people seeing me in that room,” Vlahos said.
Mr Drake, in his affidavit, said there were only two instances were a door open and closed for a few seconds and no one even came close to the table where the men were sitting, “let alone overheard what (they) were discussing”.
“You had had a rigorous assessment with (the psychologist) on that day,” Barrister Kylie Evans, for Forensicare, said to Vlahos during cross-examination on Friday.
“You faced questions about your background and the issues relating to your offending and these things were difficult things to discuss,” Ms Evans said.
The court heard Vlahos called his wife later that day and mentioned he had met with a psychologist but did not raise any issues of privacy or being upset with how the assessment was conducted.
Vlahos, who had become a leading figure in racing through his company BC3 Thoroughbreds, has been behind bars since February when he pleaded guilty to two rolled-up charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
He was initially facing more than 300 offences for his offending which spanned between 2008 and 2013 but struck a stunning plea deal with the prosecution.
The matter was adjourned for four weeks.