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Hugo Alastair Rich

"One chance - one fuckin' chance. Watch your back. Every time you turn the car on of yours . . . I'm telling you, OK. I don't care how long it takes, 25 years, bitch. I'll have a go at you. One go, that's all I want."
- Hugo Rich to Crown Prosecutor (later County Court Judge) Carolyn Douglas on August 9, 1995.

Rich was born with the name Olaf Dietrich in a German refugee camp in 1952 and came to Australia with his parents when he was nine.

He left school at 14 to work in a grocery store, then a clothing shop, and became a window dresser.

He married at 18 and had a baby daughter.

He then became a successful insurance salesman but, after business turned bad, was declared bankrupt, owing $360,000.

But Hugo Rich had it all.

He was intelligent, good looking, charismatic and had the businessman's eye for opportunity.

He also had the ego to believe he could pull off any deal and the determination to battle for years to win a point.

What he always lacked was the common sense not to go bad.

Police who know him say he has intelligence without wisdom and brains without judgement.

Rich had the talent to be a successful lawyer, businessman, stockbroker, computer software designer or legitimate importer.

Instead he chose to become a career criminal, a prolific armed robber and a high-maintenance inmate.

Police say he is a violent, vindictive bully who has invariably been trapped by his raging ego.

On December 17, 1986, Olaf Dietrich flew from Bangkok, to Melbourne Airport.

He had imported at least seventy grams of heroin, which he concealed within condoms that he had swallowed.

He was arrested the next morning by the Australian Federal Police, who searched his flat and found one of the condoms in the kitchen, and some heroin in a plastic bag under a rug in another room.

He was taken into custody, and passed the remainder of the condoms during the night at the hospital in Pentridge Prison.

Dietrich alleged that the drugs had been planted by the police.

He served five years on drug trafficking charges but fought his conviction to the High Court.

Although he had applied to the Legal Aid Commission of Victoria for assistance, they said that they would only help him if he pleaded guilty, an option which Dietrich did not want to take.

He applied to the Supreme Court of Victoria for legal assistance, but was again turned down since he had waited more than fourteen days to apply. 

He argued that he was denied natural justice because his case was allowed to continue when he was not legally represented.

Ultimately, his conviction was overturned and a nationwide precedent was established that an accused must have a lawyer in major trials.

It resulted in legislative changes; legal students are now taught the consequences of the "Dietrich case".

But it was to only a moral victory for an immoral man. There would be no retrial because he had already served his time.

When Dietrich was released on parole in April, 1990, he wanted to leave his past behind.

He did it with a stroke of a pen: he changed his name to Hugo Rich and his criminal record disappeared.

A self-taught expert in the sharemarket, he talked his way into a job with one of Victoria's most prestigious firms, Vinton Smith Dougall. Criminal checks came up clean.

He joined the firm as a trainee adviser in July 1990 and was promoted the following month.

Rich became a client advisor on share purchases.

While working as a stockbroker it is believed he started planning armed robberies.

According to police, he set up company accounts under names of his friends and bought and sold shares on credit.

The company became suspicious when his purchasers did not relate to his client base.

He left the office one night in March 1991owing $33,000 and simply didn't return.

The company discovered Rich's true identity and cuts its losses after learning of his criminal history.

Rich then set up a new company, the 3B Corporation, to establish a sharemarket software program.

Police say it stood for Bullshit Baffles Brains.

He had the trappings of success, including a South Yarra luxury apartment, a wardrobe full of designer suits and a gold BMW.

But Rich quickly returned to what he knew - armed robbery.

At the time, police noticed a pattern in a series of robberies.

In each, the getaway car was a 1988 or 1989 Ford Fairmont sedan stolen from the long-term car park at Melbourne airport.

Eventually, 18 cars had been stolen. Each theft involved removing the rear passenger side door lock, a method unique in Australia.

Police claim Rich's Fairmont gang was responsible for eight robberies between April 8 and December 2, 1991, on two men carrying takings in Prahran and Bulleen, three Armaguard vans and three banks, netting a total of $499,000.

Always fashion conscious, Rich wore a Trussardi jacket and a silk ski mask, similar to those worn by formula one drivers, during the stick-ups.

Hours after robbing an Armaguard crew at Waverley Gardens of $98,000 he wandered into the exclusive jewellers, Kozminsky, and bought himself a present, a diamond ring valued at $17,000.

He then popped $150 into the prison account of his old friend, Russell Street bomber Craig 'Slim' Minogue (pictured left with Mark 'Chopper' Read) and dropped off a computer to the convicted murderer.

He wasn't as generous with his fellow robbers.

After the Waverly Gardens heist he gave his partner Kevin Patrick Parker $20,000, claiming it was his half of the proceeds.

Rich pocketed $78,000 as his 'half'.

In seven months, Rich spent $113,562, yet he had no known legitimate income.

He made two payments of $10,000 each for computer software as part of his plan to develop a stockmarket program. Each payment was made within two days of a major hold-up.

The end came when police put the airport car park under surveillance.

They saw Rich and Parker stealing a Ford in the tell-tale manner.

Rich and one of his partners, Claudio Crupi, were arrested after the armed robbery of two security guards at The Glen shopping centre of $118,000 on December 2.

Detectives recovered $63,000 in cash.

Crupi was questioned and cleared over the Russell St bombing.

When he was arrested Rich promised a legal battle that would drag on for years.

The committal hearing lasted 51 days.

At his trial, Rich had to be removed from the court when he abused Judge Geoff Byrne.

At one point he yelled: "I don't give a rat's arse, I'll drag it out a bloody year, I don't give a shit."

After being refused permission to leave court, he yelled: "I'm telling you now, I want to leave now, you are not going to do this, rat. I'm telling you all right? I will throw every cunt in here, you ain't going to fuckin' do it, all right? You are driving me over the fucking hill, you hear that? You understand that? You want to shaft me at a time like this?, wake up to yourself, you silly old dog. There will be no fucking jury, I want to leave. I don't want to fight nobody but if you force me, that is what will happen. I'll get down on my knees, please let me leave here. I can't handle the pressure." 

On August 9, 1995, while waiting for Judge Byrne to enter the court, Rich turned to Crown Prosecutor (later County Court Judge) Carolyn Douglas and said: "One chance - one fuckin' chance. Watch your back. Every time you turn the car on of yours . . . I'm telling you, OK. I don't care how long it takes, 25 years, bitch. I'll have a go at you. One go, that's all I want."

In and out of prison and court for decades, Rich, a self-taught legal expert, set up his own city office almost immediately after he was paroled in October 2003.

Never shy, he named his firm H R Concepts and opened a Little Collins Street office.

Rich is said to have spent at least some of his time reviewing police briefs of evidence for a city solicitor - a job that combined two of his many talents - his pedantic knowledge of the law and his lifelong experience of crime.

Rich was charged with one count each of murder, armed robbery, going equipped to steal and three counts of theft of a motor vehicle after security guard Erwin Kastenberger, was shot dead during an armed robbery at the Blackburn North shopping centre on March 8, 2005.

Kastenberger, 58, was killed while making a cash delivery from a Chubb armoured van.

It is alleged Kastenberger and a colleague were approached by two armed men and Rich shot Kastenberger dead.

Kastenberger, from Cockatoo, east of Melbourne, was shot in the head at close range after his killer told him to lie on the ground.

Witnesses said he appeared to lose his balance or trip as he ran from the bandits. They said one walked over and shot him in the head. The bandits fled with $162,000.

On May 27, 2005, police arrested three men alleged to have been on their way to rob a Chubb security van in Dandenong.

Two were charged over the Blackburn North raid.

Sean Hogan, 40, was charged with the Blackburn North robbery and Mark Dickson, 44, with impeding the apprehension, prosecution and punishment of the gunman.

On June 9, 2005, police applied for a court order to question Rich, who was in Port Phillip Prison after being charged on May 12 over an alleged financial deception involving $120,000 and three firearms charges.

Rich was served with court documents in the Port Phillip Prison stating that police wished to question him over the armed robbery and murder.

Police had hoped that Lenny Ryan, who had known for two weeks that he was wanted over the murder, would hand himself in for questioning.

Ryan, of Caulfield, had served time for security van robberies in Melbourne and police said he was suspected of shooting a man during an armed robbery in Sydney.

Ryan and Rich are old mates who spent years in jail together.

Homicide squad head Detective Inspector Bernie Rankin said: "He's played a prominent role in the murder of Kastenberger . . . It is fair to say that Victoria Police regard Lenny Ryan as extremely dangerous."

A newspaper published extracts from a letter purportedly from Ryan in which he said he feared for his safety if he surrendered to police.

Shortly before 5pm on June 22, 2005, Ryan turned himself in at the homicide squad's headquarters in the St Kilda Road police centre and was charged.

Leonard Frank Ryan, 34, was charged at an out-of-court session in the Melbourne Custody Centre with murder, armed robbery and stealing a car, as well as two counts of conspiracy to commit armed robbery at Mulgrave and Dandenong.

On October 4, 2006, Rich sacked his lawyers, abused courtroom onlookers and protested about a conspiracy to hamper his defence.

"You're finished, finished, finished don't even bother standing up," he told the pair.

Seconds later he launched a tirade against crime victims advocate Noel McNamara, labelling him a "rat" and telling him to "go get a life, you fucking dog".

Mr McNamara was in court to support the widow of murdered security guard Erwin Kastenberger

Mr Rich told the court he would represent himself and requested an adjournment to prepare his case from behind bars.

He said Corrections Victoria had denied him access to documents including the witness statements against him.

"I have had my equity in these proceedings stymied and frustrated for more than 12 months," he said.

"To suggest that it is my fault is just a lie.

"There is a conspiracy going on with the informant and Corrections to frustrate these proceedings. I want my day in court. The quicker it is in court the quicker it is over and done with."

On March 13, 2007, Hugo Rich appeared at a committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

He faced several charges including one count each of murder, armed robbery, going equipped to steal and three counts of theft of a motor vehicle over the March 8, 2005, security guard murder.

One of Rich's alleged accomplices, Lenny Ryan (left), pleaded guilty the previous week and received an eight year sentence with a minimum of six.

The hearing continues.