Victor Anastasiadis

On July 17, 2002, two detectives from the former drug squad were accused in court of stealing about $10,000 cash during a raid on an alleged drug trafficker.

Sen-Det David Bartlett and Sen-Det Victor Anastasiadis both denied the allegation, but admitted they were being investigated by ESD.

Nadim Ahmad, 63, who was charged with offences involving ecstasy, cocaine and LSD, accused the drug squad of stealing the money.

During a preliminary hearing, Mr Ahmad's counsel, Dr Terry Sullivan, quizzed both Sen-Det Bartlett and Sen-Det Anastasiadis over the allegedly missing money.

"Did you take it?" Dr Sullivan asked Sen-Det Bartlett.

"Most definitely not," he replied.

"They (the other officers) didn't give you a cut of it?"

"I beg your pardon."

"Let me finish my question."

"I am a bit offended by your question."

Earlier, Dr Sullivan asked Sen-Det Anastasiadis what procedures were in place to stop police officers stealing money.

"The honesty of the members themselves," he replied.

Both officers, who were serving members in the major drug investigation division, told the court they were aware the ESD was investigating them.

Mr Ahmad, of Besant St, Moorabbin, was expected to apply for bail the following day (July 18).

Two other detectives, Stephen Paton and Malcolm Rosenes, previously with the drug squad were awaiting hearings pertaining to drug trafficking.

Nick McKenzie told listeners that allegations in court suggested that corruption in the former drug squad may have involved officers who were still serving in the force.

The allegations centred on the relationship between the detectives, a criminal turned police informer, and the late Lewis Moran.

The informer claimed that drug squad head, Det Snr Sgt Wayne Strawhorn, the detectives' boss, illegally pocketed up to half a million dollars.

But in court, the informer also claimed that the other detectives forced him to cover up the corrupt dealings that he'd had with Strawhorn.

That's a claim those detectives strenuously denied.

The theory that corrupt police rarely act alone was being tested in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, in the committal of two men who were allegedly involved in a drug syndicate headed by Lewis Moran.

In 2001, the syndicate was being investigated by Strawhorn.

But defence barrister, Chris Dane QC, had also subjected four other police officers who worked under Strawhorn to intense scrutiny about their own conduct.

Much of the cross-examination related to statements made by a criminal informer, who was passing on chemicals to Lewis Moran, while being monitored by the drug squad.

A statement from the informer read that on one occasion, the informer received money from Lewis Moran that was given to Senior Sergeant Wayne Strawhorn.

STATEMENT EXCERPT: I was paid $10,000 cash by Lewis Moran in return for the red phosphorus. The money I received on this day was paid to the drug squad.

I therefore believe the money I received on that day was paid to Wayne Strawhorn.

Such a transaction would not have been unusual had it been properly logged by the drug squad.

But, as evidence from the informer alleged, at least some of the $10,000 he gave Strawhorn was pocketed illegally, part of a total of up to half a million dollars the informer said Strawhorn made on the side.

When it came to disclosing that transaction in a statement, the informer told the Court three still serving officers working under Strawhorn – Detectives Martin Allison, Victor Anastasiadis and David Bartlett forced him to lie.

The informer also claimed other statements he'd signed for the drug squad were false, and that he was pressured to sign such statement.

STATEMENT EXCERPT: …Partly from the fact that Bartlett and Anastasiadis were on Strawhorn's staff, I felt that I didn't have any choice in the circumstances I found myself in.

Believe it or not, I signed it because I was scared.

Asked by the defence barrister to explain his fear, the informant told the Court…

" It was gun-in-your-face scared."

CHRIS DANE: Well he didn't actually raise a gun to your face?

INFORMANT: No, Marty Allison didn't do that. I had that happen on a couple of occasions from Wayne Strawhorn.

They're all the same gang as far as I'm concerned. Any arguments that I had with Marty or Bartlett or Firth or Ranna (phonetic), they'd be straight on the phone to Strawhorn.

They'd pass their phone to me and Strawhorn would give me a mouthful.

CHRIS DANE: So you had no choice but to commit perjury under the direction of these officers?

INFORMANT: That's correct.

The detectives named all denied the claims, including Senior Sergeant Martin Allison.

He told the Court the informer simply had no memory of the $10,000 transaction at the time he was asked to make his statement.

But Detective Allison was also implicated in other untoward behaviour.

The Court heard he allegedly approved and encouraged contact between the informer and Senior Sergeant Strawhorn, before Strawhorn was charged, but at a time at which any such contact had been banned.

A taped conversation between Allison and the informer was read out in court.....

INFORMANT: Why does he keep ringing me?

MARTIN ALLISON: 'Cause I asked him to.

INFORMANT: Why, he's not even in the drug squad.

MARTIN ALLISON: Yeah, I know that. Why? The investigation's still running, and I find it to my advantage because you respond better to him.

Under cross-examination the informer also said detectives threatened to expose his activities to the Moran family if he didn't cooperate.

He told the Court detectives Allison and another officer bumped into him while he was with Lewis Moran, an incident he said, the police found funny.

INFORMANT: It was always a funny topic of conversation for them, for the fact that I might die and they could just charge Lewis with murder.

NICK MCKENZIE: Another focus of the defence barrister during the committal was the movement of 35 boxes of Logicin, from the drug squad to Lewis Moran.

Logicin contains the chemical, pseudoephedrine – a crucial component in the manufacture of speed.

Detectives David Bartlett and Paul Firth picked up the Logicin from the Central Property Management Unit of the Victoria Police before giving them to the informer.

But the Court heard that two detectives mistakenly picked up 41 boxes instead of 35.

The drug squad detectives maintained 35 boxes were passed on to Lewis Moran, and the excess boxes were returned to the Management Unit.

However, the Court was told notes made at the unit showed eight boxes of Logicin instead of the required six, were returned.

That is, two extra boxes had been returned.

Under intense cross-examination, Detective David Bartlett could not explain where the extra two boxes had come from, putting it down to an accounting error.

But, defence barrister Chris Dane QC told the Court the additional boxes presented the drug squad with the capacity to manufacture amphetamine.

CHRIS DANE: Who are you protecting?

DAVID BARTLETT: Nobody.

CHRIS DANE: You are protecting somebody who has seized a number of boxes.

DAVID BARTLETT: That is not true.

CHRIS DANE: The lot of you were doing it on the side and Wayne Strawhorn will have to wear it for the rest of you.

DAVID BARTLETT: That is not true.

Three of the detectives accused of corruption in court were still serving, one in the new drug squad. The fourth officer accused in court, Paul Firth, had been suspended.

On the witness stand, the police repeatedly rejected the informer's claims.

But, a lawyer for internal investigators told the Court there may be issues raised during the hearing that touch on ongoing investigations.