FRANK SCOTT IS UNDENIABLY a brave man. Anyone who stands up and speaks out against corruption in our community knowing that he will become a target both literally and physically qualifies as a hero in my view. Such a man is Frank Scott, who emerged in the mid nineties as a whistleblower who had had a gutful of bent coppers during his stint in the CIB. As with earlier honest jacks who had raised the flag for honesty, he was berated, impugned, marginalized, threatened and forced from the job. As with Frank “Spike” Daniels who had blown the whistle a decade earlier, they were forced into early retirement by the oft used subterfuge of fake psychiatric reports which, naturally, led to the trumpeted conclusion by their bent colleagues to ingenuous reporters: “Bloody mad as a cut snake!”

But neither of the two brave Franks were mad. They were bold and they were honest and they paid the price of undercutting the Fifth Estate and its necessary support staff in the ranks of the WA Police Force. Years of harassment of Frank Scott have made him a stronger man although there were periods of dark and desperate despair. But Frank Scott fought on, eventually documenting his earlier days at the coal face which is related later here in this book. At this moment time has advanced to the infamous Mickelberg reversals when bent cop and belated whistleblower, Tony Lewanadowski, finally admitted on oath that he and other cops had lied and fabricated evidence to convict the Mickelberg brothers over the Great Mint Swindle. On 12 June 2002, in reaction to the affidavit of Lewandowski which had been dropped into the public mire by Attorney General Jim McGinty a few days earlier, Frank spoke to Luke Morfesse of the West Australian newspaper. It was quite astonishing really, having an ex-cop verify the basic essentials of policing in Western Australia. The investigative skills, according to Frank Scott, included bashing, fabrication and intensive research in the saloon bar of the Great Western Hotel. Frank told Morfesse that as a detective sergeant in the much vaunted CIB, he was routinely involved in bashing suspects. Keep in mind, in this Fair State a bashing is what is described in other “civilized” communities as “torture”.

Frank Scott told the newspaper that during his ten-year-stint he was taught the art and craft of bashing and fabrication by his ‘superiors’.

“I was taught that way and so I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. Everybody did it,” he said. “I didn’t see it as being corrupt because there was no financial benefit, you were simply doing your job, which was to catch crooks. “Half the time, because of the restrictions on admissibility of evidence, a jury didn’t know what police knew. But if the jury was able to get the same information as police had then they would have come to the same conclusion.” The one-time police whistleblower is comfortable with his claims, because what he calls an investigative tool never involved verballing or giving a hiding to anyone who he believed was innocent. “It didn’t happen on a regular basis and it would never have happened, say, in the fraud squad with a white collar crook,” he said. “It really only happened with hardened crims because it was the only language they understood. That was how the game was played.” Back when the CIB was based at police headquarters in Adelaide Terrace, the game also involved spiriting away suspects to suburban CIB offices such as Belmont.

“It was not uncommon to take someone to a suburban CIB to do the interview where you could give them a hiding without everyone around the place hearing the interview,” Mr Scott said. He claims that in the 1980s it was not uncommon for the verballed confessions of suspects obtained by some of his former CIB colleagues to be used as evidence in trials, as was the case with the Mickelbergs. “Some of those blokes could solve any crime in Perth almost without leaving the saloon bar of the Great Western Hotel,” he said. “They obviously knew the person did it but they were just too lazy to do the ground work to provide proper evidence to get a conviction. Some of those blokes could solve any crime in Perth almost without their beer getting warm.” Seems like a job made in heaven.

In the following year when the Royal Commission into police corruption was wandering around with the fairies, Frank had written to the Chief Investigator, Mario Da Re, offering his specialised knowledge to assist the inquiry. “Some time ago now, I told you that I had prepared an affidavit which was going to be tabled in Parliament. This affidavit relates to a series of allegations made by Michael Murphy. One of his allegations was that the DPP improperly failed to prosecute Murphy’s business associates in stealing $30 Million worth of gold from his gold tenement. “He also alleged that Roger Bryer and a person called Waller were somehow involved with the mint swindle and his views on this matter were tabled in Parliament by John Fischer in an affidavit. My affidavit supports the fact that Roger Bryer was allegedly involved in laundering gold bullion. It was not tabled in Parliament and may be of some use to you as intelligence. I have attached the contents for your information.” His affidavit was a bit of a mind blower, coming in on top of the Lewandowski revelations.

I am a former Police Officer who served in the Western Australian Police Service for a period of twenty two years including ten years in the Criminal Investigation Branch and five years in the Liquor and Gaming Brach. I was involuntarily discharged from the Western Australian Police Service on 20 April 1993, after I had provided the Officer in Charge of the Police Internal Affairs Unit, Superintendent Ayton, with information regarding the conduct of several high ranking officers which I considered to be corrupt. One of the Officers I refer to in the above paragraph was the Officer in Charge of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Detective Chief Superintendent Donald Hancock. A comprehensive submission of my allegations of corruption by some senior police officers has been forwarded to the Royal Commission investigating Police corruption. During the early part of my Police service in the Criminal Investigation Branch, I was acquainted with a person known to me as Roger Bryer of the El Trovadore. At that time it was Police Departmental Policy to prohibit junior police officers from frequenting the Il Trovadore Club and other illegal gaming houses in the Northbridge area.

In 1979, my acquaintance with Mr Bryer was rekindled during the Miss Universe Pageant where I was a member of the police security team and Mr Bryer was a sponsor of one of the contestants. I had further and regular contact with Mr Bryer when I was transferred to the C.I.B. Dealers Squad and Mr Bryer was the proprietor of a gold bullion and second hand jewellery store called the Great West Gold Exchange situated then on the corner of Hay and William Street, Perth. I became a regular visitor to the premises during my term as a detective in the Dealers Squad and became friendly with Mr Bryer. I was transferred from the Dealers Squad to the Drug Squad in 1980.

On 2 December 1984, I was transferred to the Central Police Station in uniform branch and during routine patrols, I noticed that the Great West Gold exchange had moved its business premises to William Street, near the intersection of Brisbane Street, Northbridge. I again renewed my acquaintance with Mr Bryer in early 1995 and visited him occasionally during my patrols. During one such visit, I informed Mr Bryer that I was soon to commence my annual leave. Mr Bryer asked me if I could supervise his premises while he went on a business trip to Queensland where he was negotiating a business deal with a publicly listed company called Ariadne Limited. I took the opportunity to do so. On one day during the week whilst I was supervising the premises, a staff member drew my attention to a male person attending the business premises with a significant quantity of gold to sell. The staff member informed me that this same person had frequented the premises on about six previous occasions and had sold similar amounts of gold.

On each occasion this gold was in excess of 99% pure and she suspected it to be gold bullion melted down. The male person informed the staff member that he would return within a fortnight with two kilograms of gold of the same quality. I was told this person gave the name of Tony Carbone who I subsequently learned was an associate of John Asciak, Geoffrey Barlow and Brian Chambers, all of them being known drug traffickers. After Carbone left the premises, I examined the gold he had sold to the Great West Gold Exchange, and the register recording the past sales of gold so that I could note the previous times Carbone had sold gold bullion to the Great West Gold Exchange. I wrote down the times, dates, quantity of gold, the amount paid in exchange for the gold and also the assay results and amount paid by the Perth Mint to the Great West Gold Exchange. At the time when I took these notes, I asked the staff member to keep my inquiry confidential from Mr Bryer as I intended to have a covert investigation carried out to ascertain the origin of the gold. I strongly suspected that this gold might have been stolen from the Perth Mint some years previously.

I then contacted Detective Inspector William Round who was a personal friend of mine and was also the second in charge of the Task Force investigating the Perth Mint swindle. I advised Detective Inspector Round what had occurred and requested that he place Carbone under Police surveillance so that evidence could be gleaned regarding the suspected gold and the antecedent details obtained of Carbone’s movements. On the following day, I was contacted by Sergeant Peter Grant who called me from Kalgoorlie and advised me that he had just been transferred to the Gold Stealing Staff and that Detective Chief Superintendent Don Hancock had authorised him to return to Perth to conduct an investigation into the information I had supplied to Detective Inspector Round. I was extremely surprised that Hancock knew about this investigation as I had expected Round to only advise the surveillance team.

A day of so later Grant attended at my private residence and I reiterated to him the importance of confidentiality as I was investigating a client of the Great Western Gold Exchange without the proprietor’s knowledge and I needed to protect my informant. I informed Sergeant Grant that I had made arrangements with the staff member to contact me and advise me when Carbone was to return to the Great Western Gold Exchange, to sell the two kilos of gold. Some two weeks later the staff member called me at home to advise that Carbone had been in touch and stated that he would be in the following morning with the gold. I immediately contacted Sergeant Grant and asked him to alert the Police Surveillance Squad in readiness for their job.

The following morning I received a telephone call from the staff member who was very agitated. When I inquired what the problem was, she told me that Mr Bryer had said he had noticed two male persons loitering and acting very suspiciously near the premises and suspected that they were preparing to rob the Great Western Gold Exchange. She then advised him that the two ‘suspects’ might in fact be police officers conducting an investigation on my behalf. Shortly later when Carbone arrived at the premises these two persons entered the shop and identified themselves as detectives and apprehended Carbone. I understand that the two detectives back at HQ then requested to view the Register and compared the dates that Carbone had previously attended at the premises with the times, dates and details that I had already provided Sergeant Grant. I also understand that Carbone was taken away for questioning and his vehicle and premises were searched. I cannot recall if any charges were preferred against Carbone but in later discussions with Sergeant Grant, I was advised that no gold had been recovered. I am unaware if the two detectives took possession of, or if they photocopied the register but these details should be contained in the relevant police file recording this incident.

I have always considered that this investigation was purposely carried out in a deliberately incompetent manner with a view to compromise the investigation so that the truth and origin of this gold would never be established. In May 2004, Frank continued his account of bizarre police conduct in another affidavit including the extraordinary response to his allegations of corruption when he was appointed to investigate his own investigation and to report the outcome to one of the senior officers he had accused! During my police career, I was appointed as a probationary detective on 2 December 1974, and was promoted through the ranks of the Criminal Investigation Branch, where I worked for 10 years, reaching the rank of detective sergeant. Whilst in the CIB I worked in various squads including Midland C.I.B., motor squad, combined operations, dealers’ squad, drug squad, general crime squad and fraud squad. I was transferred to the uniform branch on 2nd December 1984 after being charged with a disciplinary offence. I remained in the uniform branch until May 1987 when I was transferred to the liquor and gaming branch. In December 1991, I went on sick leave after reporting alleged corrupt or improper conduct by Detective Chief Superintendent Don Hancock and Chief Superintendent Les McMillan to the head of the Police Internal Affairs Branch, Superintendent Ayton, who then instructed me to investigate my own allegations and report my findings to Chief Superintendent McMillan. I was discharged from the police service on medical grounds in April 1993 at the rank of First Class Sergeant.

Whilst a serving member of the CIB, I was promoted to the rank of detective sergeant on 1 April 1982 and was transferred in that capacity to the general crime squad. One of my first tasks in that squad was to investigate the theft of about $50,000 in unsigned travellers cheques from the ANZ bank situated at the intersections of Hay and Barrack Streets, Perth. My inquiries lead to the arrest of David Christopher Mills who was charged and convicted with the theft of the traveller’s cheques and received an eighteen month prison sentence. After he had been charged, I gleaned further evidence which strongly indicated that he had committed a similar offence in Sydney involving a large amount of unsigned travellers cheques. Soon after I was seconded to a task force to investigate the murder of a Mandurah woman whose skeletal remains were found in bushlands near Pinjarra. The Perth Mint swindle occurred at about the same time but I did not work on any investigation into that offence. In June 1983, I was transferred to the CIB Bank Fraud Section where detective sergeant Bill Round was the officer in charge. Bill and I became close friends and have remained that way until recently. In about June or July of 1983, David Christopher Mills was due to be released from prison and I strongly suspected that he had the travellers’ cheques stolen from Sydney hidden in a bank safety deposit box under an assumed name. I approached senior sergeant John Horton, the officer in charge of the Scientific Bureau and asked him if he could install a phone tap for me to assist my endeavours in locating the stolen travellers cheques. Strictly speaking, the phone tap was illegal, but in those days it was commonly used as an investigative tool and I considered I had reasonable grounds for using such a method in assisting my investigation. Horton told me that he could not do any more phone taps as he had received strict instructions from John Porter, the then Commissioner of Police, not to install any further telephone taps, because they had nearly been caught out installing a telephone intercept on the Mickelberg’s phone.

I continued my investigations and a provisional warrant was issued for the arrest of Mills after he was released from prison. He challenged the extradition process and lawyer, Kate O’Brien represented him in his appeal. He was unsuccessful and was eventually extradited to NSW. Sometime while I was preparing my evidence for the committal hearing in Sydney, I had a conversation with Bill Round where I told Bill what Horton had said to me about the Mickelberg’s phone being tapped. Bill expanded on what Horton had told me. He said that the technicians in the Scientific Branch possessed a red VW kombi van similar to the vans used by the “PMG”, the phone company at the time. During the installation of the telephone intercept at the closest junction box, one of the brothers had walked past and wanted to know what the technicians were doing. I don’t know what information was obtained about the Perth Mint swindle from the phone taps, but during that conversation, Bill said to me that he, and the other officers involved in the Mint investigation, knew that the Mickelbergs were guilty and that they just had to give them a little bit extra to get them over the line. Bill also told me that senior members of the police CIB hierarchy regularly installed listening devices in squad rooms so that they could glean information of corruption and misconduct which could then be used to blackmail the officers concerned

In December 1984, I was transferred from the CIB fraud squad and did not have much contact with Bill until about July 1987 when the Police Minister had received information regarding the alleged corrupt activities of Colin Pace who was the senior sergeant in charge of the fraud squad when Bill and I worked together in the cheque section. An investigation was carried out into the possible corrupt association between Sergeant Colin Pace and race horse trainer Bob Meyers and one of the allegations related to a dishonoured cheque presented by Bob Meyers which had been forwarded by the complainant to fraud squad for investigation. I was the officer in charge of the CIB Bank Fraud Section at that time and both Bill and I provided information to senior police investigators which could have established that there was a corrupt association between Pace and Meyers. The investigation exonerated Pace of any malfeasance and in October that year Bill and I went to Hong Kong together on a holiday. There we discussed the corrupt manner in which that investigation had been carried out.

Bill advised me that he and Alan Bickford started the West Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and one of their major targets was Bruce Moms who was a member of the Mr Asia Drug Syndicate. Bill told me that they conducted illegal telephone taps and he made extracts of those intercepts which were kept at the office of BCI. Further, he said that during the illegal telephone taps, they received information which revealed that there was a corrupt association between Bruce Morris and other organised criminals with several high ranking police officers including Colin Pace. Upon returning to work, I made inquiries at BCI and located the file which Bill referred to. I photocopied some extracts which would corroborate what he told me in Hong Kong. I carried out further investigations and was able to obtain overwhelming evidence which would establish a corrupt association between Colin Pace and Bob Meyers. I reported my findings to Peter Ward, a ministerial adviser to the Police Minister as I had no trust in senior police officers. On 7 September 1995 I made my allegations of corruption by senior police officers public and the details of some of my allegations including the illegal telephone taps were published in the West Australian newspaper which resulted in the Commissioner of Police establishing a joint task force of State and Federal Police to investigate my complaints. It took some two years before the task force reported the findings of their investigation to the Minister for Police.

On or about 26 June 1996, I spoke to the then labor opposition leader, Mr. Jim McGinty and advised him that John Porter, an executive member of the Official Corruption Commission and former Commissioner of Police knew of, and condoned the installation of telephone intercepts on Mickelberg’s phone. Porter resigned from the Official Corruption Commission shortly after the leader of the opposition raised some issues which showed that the former Commissioner of Police would have a conflict of interest because of calls for a judicial inquiry into the Perth Mint swindle. Prior to being interviewed by the task force, code named “Tartan”, Bill Round allegedly told me that he would lie to the investigators about his involvement in illegal telephone taps as any admission by him would result in him being charged and the corrupt police officers who were the subject matter of the illegal telephone taps would get away with their crimes. After a discussion with Bill regarding the consequence of any admission, I was present when he drafted a letter to the Commissioner of Police seeking indemnity from prosecutions. Some time later he told me that he had been informed by the investigators attached to “Operation Tartan” that his request had been considered by John McKecknie, the then Director of Public Prosecutions and that McKecknie had refused his application for an indemnity from prosecution.

When the Labor Party won the next elections, I approached the Attorney General, Jim McGinty and provided him with a copious amount of documents which would support my allegations of police corruption and he publicly announced that he had forwarded these documents to the Royal Commission for examination. On 4 February 2003 I met with two Royal Commission investigators who told me that my specific allegations would not be examined by the Royal Commission but there was a possibility that the treatment I received at the hands of senior police officers after I had attempted to expose senior police corruption would be investigated.

Somewhat ironically, Frank concluded his extraordinary affidavit with this observation: I was extremely surprised that the Attorney general did not include my allegations in the terms of reference for the Police Royal Commission as both he and the Premier called for my allegations to be investigated when the Labor Party was in opposition. Frank made a further effort to expose and have investigated his very serious allegations when he wrote to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) which was now rebadged as the newly painted and refitted Corruption and Crime Commission, CCC. This time he expressed considerable dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Attorney General Jim McGinty. In response to the Corruption and Crime Commissions’ recent call for submissions dealing with the unauthorized release of confidential information by Government Agencies, I wish to lay a formal complaint alleging improper or corrupt conduct by the Attorney General, Mr. McGinty.

As you are aware, the Labor Party pledged to hold a Royal Commission into allegations of corruption within the West Australian Police Service in the lead up to the last State elections and then when it was successful in forming Government, it delayed the establishment of the Royal Commission for some twelve months. During this period of time, I had regular contact with the staff of the newly appointed Attorney General, Mr. McGinty and provided him with copious amounts of documents which supported my claims of corruption by senior police officers. I expected that the Attorney General would examine these documents when formulating some of the terms of reference to be investigated by the Royal Commission. Of particular concern to me, was the association of several high ranking police officers with members of the Mr. Asia Drug Syndicate and some of the documents which I supplied Mr. McGinty clearly showed that the West Australian police service regularly installed illegal telephone intercepts to glean information.

During some of these illegal telephone intercepts, information was obtained that the Mr. Asia Drug Syndicate was laundering large sums of money through the Perth racing industry and was assisted in this criminal activity by some police officers attached to the CIB consorting squad who received corrupt payments. When in opposition, both Mr. McGinty and Dr. Gallop were very critical that the Government had failed to establish a Judicial Investigation into allegations of police corruption after the Tomlinson Report was tabled in Parliament, and on or about 26 June 1996, I telephoned Mr. McGinty and advised him that the Commissioner of Police had condoned the installation of an illegal telephone intercept on the Mickelberg’s telephone. Despite the fact that he knew in June 1996 that the Police Service had acted corruptly in the manner in which evidence was obtained to convict the Mickelberg brothers of the Perth Mint swindle, he failed to refer this matter to be investigated by the Royal Commission. Furthermore, when Tony Lewandowski, a member of the police investigation team that charged the Mickeberg brothers confessed that he and Don Hancock had assaulted and fabricated evidence against one of the brothers to sustain a conviction, the Attorney General immediately showed the affidavit prepared by Lewandowski to his ministerial colleague and former Assistant Commissioner of Police, Bob Kucera who is one of the officers who is suspected of committing perjury during the many appeals by the Mickelberg brothers’ against their conviction. My specific complaint against the Attorney general is that by showing that affidavit to Kucera, when he was fully aware that some police had acted corruptly and that Kucera was one of the officers suspected of committing perjury, he had compromised any further investigation and maybe guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice. I understand that he and Mr. Kucera are close friends and are now related through marriage and this may be the reason why this investigation was thwarted.

I am also concerned that the Attorney General may have colluded with Kucera in a similar fashion when dealing with the documentary evidence which I bought before him and therefore the manner in which the Terms of Reference for the Police Royal Commission were selected could also be perceived as being corrupt. I have attached two sworn affidavits which I have prepared in relation to this matter and I have also included correspondence between myself, Mr McGinty, Mr Kucera and the shadow Police spokesman for your examination. I feel this matter should be investigated by the Corruption and Crime Commission and I look forward to being advised the results of such investigation. Fortunately Frank didn’t hold his breath awaiting an outcome as he became more and more marginalized by the Fifth Estate. By now he was pretty much in the state of agitation that he was accused of by his corrupt ‘colleagues’ in the CIB being Mad as a Cut Snake!