A Sydney road contractor’s work with the NSW transport department dried up after they broke off a kickback arrangement with an allegedly corrupt government official, an inquiry has heard.
In his second day before an anti-corruption inquiry, Direct Traffic operations manager Adam Spilsted said his company stopped receiving any new work orders or extensions to existing ones after his wife told the-then Transport for NSW manager, Ibrahim Helmy, in June 2021 that they wanted to cease dealings.
“There was nothing new coming through,” Spilsted recalled.
Direct Traffic operations manager Adam Spilsted appears at the ICAC inquiry.Credit: ICAC
He told the inquiry that he phoned another Transport for NSW official, Mukesh Patel, in 2021 to ask why Direct Traffic had been unsuccessful with a tender for work. “He said, ‘you were too expensive, and you weren’t financially supporting us’,” Spilsted said of his conversation with Patel.
Questioned on Friday about what Patel meant, Spilsted said the reference to financial support referred to his company not giving Patel and Helmy money in return for work.
“I was shocked that he would actually say that. Obviously, if we weren’t going to pay any money, we wouldn’t get any work,” he said.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption’s inquiry has previously heard that Patel is suspected of having some involvement in Helmy’s alleged corrupt dealings with contractors, including Direct Traffic.
Ibrahim Helmy is alleged to have pocketed $11.5 million in kickbacks, including bundles of cash and gold bullion.Credit: Aresna Villanueva
Under questioning from ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, Spilsted said he became worried about his company going into voluntary administration because of the lack of work, and that he knew it would not get more unless he paid kickbacks to Helmy.
“I was worried about the work, and we weren’t getting enough,” he said.
The inquiry was also played intercepted phone conversations in July and August last year in which Helmy and Spilsted talked about arranging a meeting.
A surveillance video played to the inquiry showed that Spilsted and his wife, Mechelina “Louisa” Van Der Ende-Plakke, met Helmy at a McDonald’s restaurant in Liverpool on August 7 last year to discuss why Direct Traffic was not getting any further work from Transport for NSW.
Spilsted told the inquiry the sticking point about again paying Helmy kickbacks for work was his wife, who was not happy about re-entering the arrangement.
Following the McDonald’s meeting, Spilsted confirmed he discussed paying Helmy about $20,000 with his wife. Spilstead said she agreed but was later reluctant to do so after they both withdrew money from their personal accounts.
Spilsted then arranged to meet Helmy outside his home in Merrylands where he handed him an envelope containing the money on August 28 last year.
While he was shown a covert video of himself handing the money to Helmy in his Ford Ranger ute, Spilsted shook his head and broke down, saying: “I’m a disgrace to myself.”
Spilstead said he did not have any further contact with Helmy after he handed him the cash in August last year.
The ICAC is investigating allegations Helmy was the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with nine companies, including Direct Traffic, that were paid at least $343 million in contracts by Transport for NSW.
Helmy, 38, is alleged to have pocketed $11.5 million in kickbacks – including bundles of cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency – over 15 years from contractors, in return for them being awarded work. He failed to appear before the ICAC in May and police have a warrant out for his arrest.
It is alleged that Direct Traffic was awarded about $48 million of work from September 2018 to June this year as a result of corrupt dealings with Helmy.
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