Race fixing, corruption, intimidation, threats, leaks and bashings – this was the year the traditional world of racing met the sophisticated world of law enforcement.
Covert surveillance, coercive hearings and informant recruitment have all been used to uncover criminal activity in the first year of the newly established Queensland Racing Integrity Commission.
It was the State Government’s answer to the horror of the live baiting scandal – images of piglets, rabbits and native possums torn apart by racing greyhounds splashed across the media, the footage uncovered by Animal Liberation Queensland.
Ross Barnett left his role as Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner to run the commission – a detective with 39 years’ experience who trained with the FBI and spent years on national counter-terrorism committees.
Mr Barnett was chosen, deliberately so, because he had no knowledge of, or connection to, the racing industry. He took on the role knowing it would not be a popular one and said the past year had been a “steep learning curve which is unending”.
“Our first year has uncovered significant evidence of previous failures to investigate complaints about serious matters adequately or at all and the leaking of sensitive information to industry participants,” he said.
“A lot of what we’re investigating is actually criminal in nature. More than just the rules of racing. The rules of racing can adequately be enforced by the stewards, generally.
“But we’re talking serious animal cruelty – a seven-year crime. Match fixing or race fixing – a 10-year crime.
“This is high level crime, quite organised crime, and common sense tells you that you need the police and the police powers if you’re going to investigate a crime properly and that’s why we’ve been successful in laying race-fixing charges in our first nine months.”
Not long after Mr Barnett took on his new role, he became aware of an alarming situation.
In the months before the commission was established, an informant had come forward with allegations of race fixing. But the information was leaked, spread around, and before long, the informant was confronted at home by their partner about what they’d done.
“So hence, that story gets around and people know they (integrity officers) can’t be trusted,” he said.
“That was the sort of environment we needed to fix.”
Today, the Racing Crime Squad, made up of Queensland police officers, and the Integrity Regulatory Unit are quarantined away, its staff working in locked rooms.
A corruption prevention officer from the Crime and Corruption Commission was brought in to talk on the importance of discretion when handling matters that could lead to criminal charges. And Mr Barnett used the Commission’s coercive powers – similar to those often used in the CCC’s secret Star Chamber hearings – in an attempt to uncover the source of the leak.
“It’s a significant power which we use judiciously but it’s a valuable part of the arsenal,” he said.
The investigation is ongoing but Mr Barnett said much has been done to ensure future informants can be sure they will be protected.
In the past year, investigators have uncovered alleged animal cruelty, intimidation, threats, assaults and misconduct.
“It has given me no joy to see a number of staff depart in the first year after investigations into a range of allegations of serious misconduct,” he said.
Mr Barnett said the integrity of the racing industry was important in a climate where it is possible to bet on almost anything.
Investigators on winning streak:
OCTOBER 2016: A harness steward resigns amid allegations he gave harness trainers advance warning of stable inspections.
JANUARY 2017: Yandina horse trainer David Ronald Gafa, 56, is charged with animal cruelty following allegations he drowned a four-month-old thoroughbred foal.
FEBRUARY 2017: A 32-year-old Molendinar man is charged with assault occasioning bodily harm and two counts of common assault against three harness racing participants. The charges were the result of a four-month investigation into claims of intimidation and assaults.
FEBRUARY 2017: A 62-year-old central Queensland man is charged with failing to comply with a welfare direction after 11 allegedly neglected racehorses are found on his Alton Downs property.
FEBRUARY 2017: Chief Harness Racing Stipendiary Steward David Farquharson is sacked following an independent, external investigation into a complaint made by a racing industry participant.
APRIL 2017: Queensland Police and the Crime and Corruption Commission join with QRIC to raid the properties of five harness racing participants amid allegations of systemic race fixing. Two men are charged with match fixing.
MAY 2017: The Commission’s integrity regulation unit head is reassigned from his role following a complaint of misconduct. Norm Torpey was accused of not properly investigating a matter reported by a participant.
MAY 2017: A cadet steward resigns after she was investigated for entering false information on a chain-of-custody document for a swab taken from a horse.
By Kate Kyriacou, The Sunday Mail (Qld)