Wayne Carey breaks silence on white powder incident at Crown Casino in Perth

AFL great Wayne Carey has broken his silence on being caught with a bag of powder at a casino, firing up outside Wagga Wagga RSL.

Former AFL great Wayne Carey has spoken publicly for the first time since he was allegedly caught with a bag of white powder at a casino.

The 51-year-old fronted the media on Thursday evening outside the Wagga Wagga RSL in regional NSW, where he took only a few questions from waiting journalists.

“What I will say is that nothing illegal has occurred here,” he said.

Carey said Crown staff had two opportunities “40 minutes apart” to call police on the night and he was “really disappointed” they hadn’t.

“If what was alleged had happened, then the police would have been called straight away,” he said.

“They then had another opportunity, when I went up to my room, to call the police and they never called the police.

“I want to know why. Because if they had called the police, I wouldn’t be here standing here talking to you about this.”

Former AFL great Wayne Carey spoke to reporters outside the Wagga Wagga RSL. Picture: Catie McLeod

A week earlier, Carey was escorted out of Crown Perth when a small bag containing a powdered substance fell out of his pocket.

The dual-premiership captain at North Melbourne said the powder was “crushed up anti-inflammatories” used to treat football injuries.

Carey maintains he offered to hand the bag to staff after dropping it at a gaming table at Crown in Burswood last Thursday night.

Carey was in Wagga to speak at a men’s mental health event hosted by The Good Blokes Society (GBS), which describes itself as a community to help men develop social and business relationships.

Carey told reporters out the front of the RSL he had returned to his hometown to support the GBS and its event.

“I’m not going to answer any more questions. I’m going to go in there and have a really good night and support this great organisation,” he said near the end of his brief press conference.

Reporters pressed on, with Carey stating, “I want a thorough police investigation. Thorough. I applaud it. I want it.”

“No more. No more answers,” he said, before walking inside the RSL for the event.

Police are investigating, and Carey has not been charged with any crime.

Wayne Carey was escorted from Crown Perth last Thursday night. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Image

But Crown Resorts chief executive Ciaran Carruthers has said Carey’s version of events contradicts that of casino staff.

“That’s in contradiction to the statements that we’ve received from our own staff and from witnesses who were there at the time,” Mr Carruthers told 6PR radio on Thursday.

Mr Carruthers, who is in his first week on the job, gave the interview a few hours before Carey was due to speak at the Wagga RSL.

Mr Carruthers claimed casino staff and witnesses claimed Carey did not offer the bag of powder to security after it fell onto a gaming table.

He claimed Carey told also told staff that he was not a guest at the hotel.

“Our team approached him in his room and advised him that he needed to vacate,” Crown Resorts chief executive Ciaran Carruthers said.

“He co-operated, he asked for some time to collect his belongings, which we gave him, he then removed himself from the property,” he said.

Mr Carruthers conceded that police should have been called.

West Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch said on Wednesday detectives were “on the back foot” in their investigation and he would have preferred a complaint to have been made on the night.

“Perth detectives are conducting an investigation, so we are now working with Crown to review CCTV,” he told 6PR radio.

“We’ll make an assessment from that but obviously we’re on the back foot from the beginning because we didn’t have the initial complaint at the time it occurred, which would’ve my preference.”

Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said on Wednesday Carey had retained lawyer Josh Bornstein to investigate a possible disability discrimination claim against Perth’s Crown Casino.

Carey was booked in to speak at a men’s mental health event in Wagga on Thursday. Picture: Michael Klein.

Mr Carruthers denied any suggestion of “disability discrimination”.

“There was no discrimination. We could not have been aware, even if it were true, that there was an issue with his health,” he said.

According to his lawyer, Carey is prescribed anti-inflammatories and painkilling medicine to help manage significant pain caused by debilitating football injuries.

His injuries include a shoulder that needs replacing and a neck injury that requires three discs to be replaced, his lawyer said.

“We are considering whether Crown Casino unlawfully discriminated against Mr Carey by excluding him from its premises as a result of a pre-existing disability,” Mr Bornstein said.

The lawyer said his client was “distressed” by the casino’s actions that resulted in media attention and led the public to wrongly assume the bag contained an illegal drug.