Mark Standen … was accused of making up parts of a witness statement. Photo: Nick Moir
AUTHORITIES knew in 2003 that the NSW Crime Commission investigator mark Standen had been accused of fabricating evidence, but it appears no one bothered to do anything about it.
The allegation that Standen ”verballed” a witness is just part of the fallout from his conviction last week for conspiracy to import an illegal substance, drug supply and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the NSW Bar Association, Phillip Boulten, SC, called for a judicial inquiry to investigate Standen’s dealings with informers and criminals. He said evidence suggested it was unlikely that what Standen did was an isolated incident.
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A retired Supreme Court judge ”would be ideal” because ”someone needs to check what mark Standen has done.”
The verballing accusation was made to the Director of Public Prosecutions by a woman who was to give evidence against alleged British drug trafficker James Henry Kinch, who was arrested in Manly in March, 2003.
The case against Kinch fell apart after she told the DPP some of her statement was not true. Referred to specific words, she told the DPP: ”Mark put that in.”
Kinch not only got off drug charges, he became Standen’s informer. The two men had contact more than 100 times in the following years, much of it undocumented by the investigator. Kinch is now in Thailand, fighting extradition to Australia, as one of Standen’s co-accused.
Aside from that matter, The Sun-Herald has obtained a copy of a NSW Police report, by Strike Force Borlu, which raises more questions about the Crime Commission’s willingness to do deals with wealthy criminals.
Operation Borlu, involving NSW Police and commission staff, looked at a syndicate linked to notorious trafficker Ian Saxon who imported 10 tonnes of cannabis into Australia in 1989.
Standen arrested Saxon in 1990 for that importation.
The report says that by the mid-1990s Standen had Saxon’s detailed records which revealed that a Castlecrag man ”distributed five tonnes of cannabis resin and returned just over $37 million to Saxon” within months.
In 1996 the commission, led by Standen, targeted the man but not over the five tonnes because the case was considered too old. Eventually the man was charged over an unrelated matter, conspiracy to supply 180 kilograms of cannabis through a Sydney network. He pleaded guilty and helped the commission locate $1.2 million in an overseas bank account.
The man was sentenced to five years jail. his associates served shorter terms.
Strike Force Borlu records that the Castlecrag man and his associates negotiated the financial settlements with the commission. The report, written in January, 1999, says: ”Overall it is estimated that in total $6 million dollars worth of settlements for this operation is expected.”
At least one member of the syndicate was given a letter of comfort by the commission, despite the fact he reneged on a deal to testify against his mates.
Strike Force Borlu also reported that $27,000 disappeared from an Artarmon garage while the syndicate was under surveillance. The report noted it could have been a chance break and enter or it could have been any member of the strike force or the crime commission ”that had knowledge of the existence of the garage and its contents.”
The accusation that Standen made up parts of a witness’s statement flowed out of the arrest of Kinch on March 14, 2003, by a joint task force of NSW and Federal Police, and the crime commission.
A female associate picked up the same day agreed to give evidence against Kinch. She made a statement to investigators including Standen.
But in July that year, in a meeting with an officer from the DPP, the woman said that parts of her statement had been inserted by Standen.
”Prima facie, that is an allegation of corruption, it is an attempt to pervert the course of justice,” a former senior police officer said yesterday.
”If that had been investigated at the time, we might not be in the position we are now.”
The woman also told the DPP other information she had passed on to police had been left out of her statement.
The DPP officer wrote in her notes: ”I said if she didn’t agree with it she shouldn’t sign things.
”[The woman] said she protested that wasn’t what he said but they [the police] said ‘don’t worry about it’ and she signed it anyway.”
The DPP informed Kinch’s lawyers of what the woman had said, the case against him collapsed and he became Standen’s informer.
The former DPP, Nicholas Cowdery, QC, said he had only a vague recollection of the Kinch case, but was ”quite confident” the office, including the now Attorney-General, Greg Smith, had followed proper procedures.
with Geesche Jacobsen
