Gino and Mark Stocco’s rampage left a trail of traumatised farmers and destroyed property
AFTER eight years of menacing farmers, police, friends and family, Gino and son Mark Stocco finally ran out of escape routes.
FACE-down squirming on the dirt with his arms bound, Gino Stocco’s rampage came to an abrupt end. After eight years of menacing farmers, police, friends and family, Gino and son Mark had finally run out of escape routes.
Their paranoid fear of capture was now a reality and, as police officers swarmed, the
convicted fraudster was out of tricks.
“They were always looking over their shoulders,” north coast cattle farmer and victim of the pair, Ian Durkin said.
Detective Inspector Darren Cloake, who headed Strike Force Kalkadoon, loathed comparisons between the Stoccos and Ned Kelly’s infamous bushranger gang.
The closest the pair came to Kelly’s Glenrowan showdown was driving past the town after violently ramming a Victorian police car last Thursday.
“There’s no romance about this, or letting these two be cult heroes,” Insp Cloake said.
The Stoccos’ run from the law began 1900km north of Dunedoo, in their north Queensland hometown of Bambaroo, 30km south of Ingham.
Gino, 58, operated a popular north Queensland petrol station but after a messy marriage breakdown with Mark’s mother, Gino and his son began their voyage towards self-destruction. Armed with $100,000 from a divorce settlement, Gino travelled to Taree and purchased the yacht Kiwarrak.
Setting sail in 2003, Gino and Mark, then aged 23, travelled between Port Macquarie and Adelaide, stealing people’s identities as they went to sustain their lifestyle. For three years they picked off victims, including a priest and soldier, before their capture in late 2006.
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Charged with stealing the priest’s identity to take out bank loans, breaking into a yacht club to steal money, defrauding three victims of $20,000 and stealing from Mark’s mother, Gino went to prison for only four months. Mark was inside for two.
The pair’s release in 2007 unleashed them on unsuspecting and trusting farmers between Ingham and country Victoria.
NSW Police said both men have each been charged with murder, two counts of police pursuit (‘Skye’s Law’), three counts of discharge firearm with intent to resist arrest, three counts of shoot at with intent to murder, dishonestly obtain property by deception, receive property stolen outside NSW, three counts of goods in custody, possess unauthorised firearm, possess ammunition without holding licence/permit and take and drive conveyance without consent.
They have been formally refused bail to appear before Dubbo Local Court today on these NSW-related offences.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal investigators have allegedly linked the men with a number of serious crimes, via fingerprints and visual identification.
Raised in a tight-knit north Queensland family, Gino used the mechanical and survivalist skills he learnt growing up to bluff farmers into a false sense of security.
Using country publications, Gino and Mark sought cash-in-hand jobs offering free accommodation. Darling Downs farmer Doug Redding, who was working in the mines, was desperate for help on his farm.
Mr Redding regrets allowing them into his life, admitting the $60,000 damage to his property and stolen goods allegedly inflicted by the pair did not match the mental anguish.
Like other farmers targeted by the Stoccos, the process of dealing with insurance companies, if they were insured, and living in fear of the armed men has left them scarred.
The Daily Telegraph understands investigations carried out by detectives in country areas where the Stoccos are alleged to have committed crimes is being reviewed.
Canowindra property owner Donna Tidswell described the fear her family felt after a blaze at their farm, linked to the Stoccos, caused $180,000 damage. Her son, who caught two men in the act, was driven at as they fled the newly bought property, a suspected revenge attack aimed at the previous owner.
Every time the police came close to catching up with them, the Stoccos moved on like phantoms. Recently they abandoned a building site near Campbelltown as police approached.
They studied atlases and maps, had stockpiles of firearms and supplies, and knew every bush trail between northern Victoria and the Queensland border.
Despite being wanted for an assault on a Queensland Police officer and inflicting burns on a north Queensland farmer, the pair was not on the NSW most wanted list.
After eight years on the run, Queensland Police only added Gino to the national most wanted list in mid-August.
Aside from their history of violence and deception, their revenge attacks on farmers, where they allegedly drilled holes into tyres and poured sugar into fuel tanks, was brutal.
In the past two weeks the Stoccos used their local knowledge, sticking to bush tracks and camping out to avoid the huge police manhunt.
Almost as famous as their mugshots was Paul Rogers’ white Toyota Landcruiser, which could travel 800km on a full 145L fuel tank.
On October 18, two days after the Stoccos shootout with police near Wagga, Mr Rogers had filled-up the car and left his wallet inside.
Hiding behind a nearby creek bed, the Stoccos emerged under the cover of dark, stealing the ute.
Within a week the vehicle had clocked more than 3000km and made international headlines. He doesn’t want it back. Describing them as “bad buggers”, Mr Rogers is now locking his doors at night.
THE STOCCO TIMELINE
2007: Mark and Gino Stocco are on the run from police in NSW and Queensland for fraud and robbery.
Oct. 16: The Stoccos — armed with a high powered rifle and shotgun — shoot at NSW highway patrol officers near the Victorian border.
Oct. 17: Police find the pair’s dumped Nissan Navara near Wagga Wagga.
Oct. 18: The pair steal a white Toyota LandCruiser ute from a property in the NSW Riverina region.
Oct. 20: Fresh-shaven and clean, the Stoccos are spotted refuelling the stolen ute at a petrol station in Eurora, in northeast Victoria.
Oct. 21: The Stoccos are spotted driving on the Melba Highway near the town of Glenburn, in central Victoria.
Oct. 21: The father and son are captured on CCTV at a supermarket in Bairnsdale.
Oct. 22: The pair are spotted by police at a check point near Castella but lose them in a high speed car chase.
Oct. 22: A Victorian police car is rammed near St James by a LandCruiser with numberplates stolen from Tumbarumba, NSW.
Oct. 24: The stolen ute is spotted in Sale, Victoria in the morning.
Oct. 24: At 9pm the men steal petrol from a service station in South Gundagai, NSW in a LandCruiser with South Australian numberplates.
Oct. 25: Police set up a perimeter around a property in Tarcutta, NSW, after residents report seeing the stolen vehicle.
Oct. 25: Unconfirmed sightings of the pair in Tumut, NSW.
Oct. 27: Police receive tip off about the pair’s whereabouts.
Oct. 28: After eight years on the run the Stoccos are arrested by NSW police at a property in Dunedoo near Dubbo in central west NSW.
Oct. 28: The Stoccos are charged.
Oct. 29: Father and son are expected to face Dubbo Local Court.
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