NSW Police to pay conman Peter Foster $170k and he plans to sue for even more

NSW Police have been ordered to pay Australia’s greatest conman $170,000 in legal costs after his spectacular arrest on a Queensland beach exposed decades of improper practices.

Peter Foster intends to sue NSW Police for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution following his 2020 arrest. Picture: Tertius Pickard

NSW Police have been ordered to pay Australia’s greatest conman, Peter Foster, $170,000 in legal costs after his spectacular arrest on a Queensland beach exposed decades of improper practices by detectives, leading to the Sydney City Fraud Squad being scrapped.

Senior cops at City Central were already concerned about the relationship between private investigators and some members of the city fraud squad before the Foster arrests blew up in their faces.

In a scathing judgment, NSW Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson said it appeared Foster had been charged purely on the brief of evidence supplied by high-profile private investigator Ken Gamble.

“I am not satisfied it was carried out in a reasonable and proper way,’’ she said after Foster was charged for allegedly defrauding millions of dollars in Bitcoin in a sports betting scheme.

She said the information to begin an investigation in NSW came from Mr Gamble, which was based on “hearsay not evidence” and “should have been more thoroughly investigated by NSW police but wasn’t”.

Peter Foster’s arrest by detectives in 2020. Picture: IFW Global

Foster was walking his dogs on a Port Douglas beach when police swooped.

The decision was handed down on February 24 in the Downing Centre Court, but suppressed until last week when NSW Police caved in to submissions by The Sunday Telegraph and Foster’s lawyers to make the ruling public.

Convicted fraudster Foster was arrested in a blaze of publicity on a Port Douglas beach, with a 60 Minutes film crew and Mr Gamble at the scene, in August 2020, sparking an internal police inquiry.

Investigator Ken Gamble. Picture: Justin Lloyd

A page of the heavily redacted NSW Professional Standards report.

Foster was extradited back to NSW and hit with multiple charges over the alleged fraud of a former fighter pilot Dino Stylianopolous, who was living in Hong Kong and had engaged Mr Gamble to try to recover his money.

The charges against Foster were dropped by NSW DPP six months later, after his lawyers contested there was no proof the alleged offences had occurred in NSW.

He was eventually charged with similar offences by Queensland police, which he is now contesting.

Former detective sergeant Roland Winter. Picture: Supplied

Foster sued NSW police, with his lawyers requesting a copy of the Professional Standards findings report into his arrest.

It found Detective Sergeant Roland Winter authorised the arrest warrant for Foster without permission from his bosses, and also had shared information improperly with Ken Gamble.

But the report did not publicly disclose details of its investigation.

“The Professional Standards report is so heavily redacted it is of no assistance and (furthermore) … could not access the behaviour of the officer,’’ Ms Atkinson said.

Winter has since left the force.

Police lead Foster away as the carmeras (right) roll.

Foster, buoyed by his win and now living on the Gold Coast, intends to sue NSW Police for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

“I was brutally arrested at a time when I was mourning my mother’s passing. I didn’t even get to scatter my mothers ashes and spent seven months in jail,’’ Foster said on Saturday.

“I will keep fighting and am determined to press for the full Professional Standards report which they seem so keen to hide.

“NSW Police need to investigate cases involving Ken Gamble, where he essentially provided legal briefs to NSW Police who just ticked them off without checking the veracity of what was handed to them.”

The Sunday Telegraph can also reveal fraud victims whose cases had no links to Sydney’s CBD were in some instances urged to sign up to virtual office sites located across the city, providing a reason for investigators at Sydney City to take the cases on.

Foster’s case is one where the brief of evidence was compiled by private investigators, and then passed off by police as their own work.

In awarding costs Ms Atkinson took into account that Foster had to hire barristers to deal with the complicated matter of his extradition, and said the claim of $168,752 was “just and reasonable.”

It is understood dozens of cases prosecuted by the Sydney City Fraud Squad were sent to the Professional Standards Command for review, by senior officers who were worried the convictions may have been problematic.

Foster’s Sydney lawyer Alex Maroulis said “Kenneth Gamble … had a financial interest” in the investigation into Foster, and Ronald Winter had “commenced the criminal proceedings and arrest of Mr Foster without the proper authority”.

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Originally published as NSW Police to pay conman Peter Foster $170k and he plans to sue for even more