Crown Perth ex-director saw ‘no red flags'

Perth billionaire and former director of Crown’s Perth casino Tim Roberts has told a royal commission that he never saw any ‘red flags’ of operational risk.

Former Burswood Ltd director Tim Roberts as he leaves the Perth Casino Royal Commission on Friday. Picture: Colin Murty / The Australian

Perth billionaire and former director of Crown’s Perth casino Tim Roberts has told the Western Australian royal commission that he never saw any ‘‘red flags’’ around the operation’s risk management.

Mr Roberts, the third current or former director of Crown subsidiary Burswood Ltd to appear before the commission this week, testified on Friday that internal audits of risk management within the casino only ever identified “minor” breaches of company policy.

“My recollection is there was never anything identified by a red flag and caused me as a director a great concern or any concern,” he said.

The royal commission is investigating Crown’s suitability to continue holding WA’s only casino licence following earlier revelations that hundreds of millions of dollars were allegedly laundered through the venue from at least 2014.

Mr Roberts, an heir to the Multiplex empire who now runs his own investment office, was a friend of Crown’s major shareholder James Packer and attended Mr Packer’s wedding to Erika Baxter in 2007. He said he agreed to join the Burswood Ltd board both because of his friendship with Mr Packer and his interest in the big Crown Towers development planned for the Perth casino at the time.

It emerged earlier this week that Burswood Ltd board meetings sometimes ran for as little as half an hour, with the more substantive decisions about the Perth casino made by parent company Crown Resorts and the casino’s management themselves.

But Mr Roberts said the involvement of Burswood Ltd directors went beyond just their time in board meetings.

“While the board minutes only reflected that meetings went for an hour, there were substantive discussions prior to all the board meetings that I can recall with other directors in regards to matters of concern or of query that would be undertaken prior to any board meeting, and also post any board meetings,” he said.

“Further, the CEO Mr Barry Felstead provided regular updates to me in between board meetings.”

Mr Felstead, who retired at the end of last year, Crown Perth CEO Lonnie Bossi and Crown Perth general manager of legal and compliance Claude Marais will all be among the witnesses to appear before the WA royal commission next week.

It emerged earlier this year that Mr Marais was a friend and regular fishing partner of the WA gaming regulator’s chief casino officer Michael Connolly.

The WA commission will also hear from former Crown Resorts chief legal officer Joshua Preston, whose name has frequently been mentioned in the numerous probes into the company due to his vast oversight of money laundering issues.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Crown Resorts executive chairman Helen Coonan will make oral submissions to the Victorian royal commission into the casino group independent of it.

It is understood that Ms Coonan will mount a defence of her reputation after counsel assisting the Victorian commission recommended she be found unsuitable to run Crown‘s Melbourne casino along with the rest of Crown Resorts.

Ms Coonan is also set to give evidence to the WA Royal Commission into Crown Resorts on August 12.

Other parties set to provide an oral submission at the Victorian probe next week include Crown Resorts, Crown Melbourne, The State of Victoria, The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation and Consolidated Press Holdings, the investment vehicle of major Crown shareholder James Packer.