WA: QC says bent cop's confession contaminates Mint swindle case

AAP General News (Australia)
12-01-2003
WA: QC says bent cop's confession contaminates Mint swindle case

By Tim Clarke

PERTH, Dec 1 AAP - The entire case against the Mickelberg brothers - convicted of the
Perth Mint Swindle over 20 years ago - was contaminated by the confessions of corrupt
cop Tony Lewandowski, a court has been told.

Ray and Peter Mickelberg today restarted their eighth attempt to clear their names
of the theft of 68.5kg of gold - now worth $1.5 million - from the Perth Mint in June,
1982.

Malcolm McCusker QC told WA's Court of Criminal Appeal the brothers' claims of a stitch-up
had been vindicated by Mr Lewandowski's admission last year that he and his boss Don Hancock
had beaten Peter and fabricated evidence.

"The evidence of Mr Hancock and Mr Lewandowski was so important, then if it is shown
to be perjured then there has not been a fair trial," Mr McCusker said.

"Between certain of the officers in this case, there was a conspiracy to fabricate
evidence that would effect the ends of justice.

"Because the police thought they (the Mickelbergs) were guilty they saw no problem
in producing false evidence."

Mr McCusker told the appeal panel that as well as the testimony of Mr Lewandowski,
given at expedited hearings last year, there also existed problems with evidence.

He told appeal judges Chief Justice David Malcolm, Justice Michael Murray and Justice
Christopher Steytler that these problems, together with Mr Lewandowski's confession, should
be grounds for the convictions to be quashed.

"All of these anomalies could be innocently explained if you start from the premise
that the police were not in the habit of fabricating evidence. We now have evidence that
they were," he told the court.

The Mickelberg's 20-year quest to clear their names stems from the remarkable 1982
heist, when crooks posing as gold investors ordered $650,000 worth of gold bullion over
the phone from the Perth Mint.

They paid for it with stolen cheques and had the bars picked up by a courier. The booty
then disappeared unchecked from a busy Perth airport.

Following their convictions in 1983, Ray Mickelberg served eight years of a 20 year
sentence for the swindle and Peter served six years of a 14 year term.

The third Mickelberg brother, Brian, whose conviction was overturned after nine months
behind bars, died in a light aircraft crash in 1986.

The latest appeal centres around Lewandowski's rollover testimony, given after his
former boss - retired Perth CIB chief Don Hancock - was killed by a bikie car bomb in
September 2001.

AAP tc/hn/tma

KEYWORD: MICKELBERG LEAD

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