AU: Going to the dogs - bikies, dopers and fraudsters

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From www.smh.com.au

Going to the dogs - bikies, dopers and fraudsters

August 12, 2012

Natalie O'Brien

Description: Off leash ... greyhound racing has alleged links to organised
crime and fraud.

Off leash ... greyhound racing has alleged links to organised crime and
fraud. Photo: Steve Lunam

Allegations of race-fixing, drug use, money laundering and bikie group
infiltration are rife in NSW's $50 million-a-year greyhound racing industry,
despite reforms aimed at cleaning up the sport.

Greyhound owners, trainers, breeders and even former official vets are
raising concerns that the industry has returned to its murky past because of
a lack of transparency and independent oversight.

Their accusations include that:

Organised crime figures are selling hard-to-detect steroids to greyhound
trainers;

Bikie groups are involved in breeding and selling greyhounds and laundering
money through the tracks;

Drug swabs are going missing or taking months to be released with no way of
tracking them; and

Races are being fixed by planting dogs that will run badly - often only for
one race, never to be seen on the track again;

With new rules allowing betting on dogs and horses to lose, this adds an
incentive to fix races.

Some greyhound owners, including David Allen from Bemboka near Bega, are so
disillusioned that they refuse to race their dogs in NSW and take them
interstate.

The allegations come amid calls for a national racing integrity body
following similar allegations revealed in the Herald last week about
corruption and race-fixing in the Victorian horse racing industry.

The celebrity TV vet Dr Rob Zammit, who has been an official on-course vet
for Greyhound Racing NSW, said the problems in the industry were
''endemic''.

''I think the industry has had issues like this for a long time,'' he said.
''It has not been honest, there are no two ways about it. I once tried to
right the wrongs, advising that there are drugs being used in dogs that are
not showing up that we should test for, and I lost my greyhound clientele
overnight because of it.''

Dr Zammit, with fellow former on-course vets Ted Humphries and Linda Corney,
were all appointed to the official Veterinary Advisory Panel in 2009 when
Greyhound Racing NSW took over regulating the sport.

At the time, the body's then chairman, Professor Percy Allan, AM, recognised
the importance of independent professional advice on drug detection and
lauded the ''well-respected experts'' chosen for the panel. But within two
years the independent panel had been disbanded and the new on-course vets
are now directly employed by GRNSW.

Dr Humphries's revelations about past corrupt practices sparked a 2000
inquiry into the sport by the Independent Commission Against Corruption,
which led to six people being charged and the jailing of the former chief
steward Rodney Potter.

But with the former Labor government's 2009 changes to the industry, GRNSW
was made an autonomous non-government body - so not subject to direction by
the government or oversight by the ICAC, which is only concerned with public
agencies. That means there is no independent, outside oversight.

''The previous government has effectively turned GRNSW into a private
company and that was an error,'' Dr Humphries said.

Dr Corney, who has worked at greyhound tracks for 25 years and was
instrumental at the ICAC inquiry, fears the sport ''has gone backwards - to
being a closed shop''.

But the chief executive officer of GRNSW, Brent Hogan, said: ''It is easy
for people, who may be disenfranchised and who no longer enjoy a role in the
industry, to throw mud.''

He was ''somewhat amazed'' at being questioned about the change to vets
being employed in-house, adding it was commonplace in other codes of racing.
''The new approach of GRNSW removes potential conflict of interest, as the
treating veterinarian can no longer refer the greyhound to their own
practice for their own financial gain - or, likewise, come under any undue
pressure from participants at the track who are clients of the veterinarian
in private practice.''

The latest allegations follow the resignation of a former state ombudsman,
David Landa, from the position of integrity auditor for GRNSW. Mr Landa, a
former chief magistrate of NSW and one of the state's most experienced
public investigators, quit because he believed the role was compromised and
unworkable. He told The Sun-Herald the lack of oversight was unprecedented
around the world.

''But what is a mystery to me is why the Minister for Racing is blind to
this,'' he said. ''It must be because the bureaucrats that changed the act
in 2009 are are still there advising him, and they don't want to be exposed
as having drafted useless legislation.''

The minister, George Souris, said he was committed to the integrity of
racing in NSW.

''It is of paramount importance and the public must have full confidence in
it,'' he said. ''I take these recent allegations most seriously and I have
passed them on to Greyhound Racing NSW for their urgent action and
consideration. I await their advice. In the meantime, I would urge anyone
with evidence of race fixing or any type of wrong-doing to take that
evidence to the relevant authorities.''

Mr Landa's departure followed the removal of his predecessor, the first
integrity auditor to be appointed to GRNSW, the barrister John Bernard
Costigan, for failing to carry out his duties. Mr Costigan has since been
struck off as a barrister for being ''not a fit and proper person to hold a
local practising certificate''.

Mr Landa told The Sun-Herald he wanted to hold a public inquiry into why Mr
Costigan had been allowed to continue holding the position for 18 months
even though he was not carrying out his duties. But he said GRNSW ''hit the
roof'' at that prospect.

Mr Landa then decided an investigation into drug swabs should be launched,
after receiving a complaint from an owner and trainer, Carly Absalom, who
believed the system was favouring high-profile trainers. Mr Landa believed
the inquiry should involve public submissions on swabbing and public
hearings.

But Mr Hogan said this had been outside Mr Landa's jurisdiction.

Illegal drug use has exploded, according GRNSW's own figures. They show an
82 per cent jump in positive drug swabs from 2010-11 to 2011-12. Mr Hogan
said the swabbing budget would be doubled.

"The increased expenditure on drug detection will result in the number of
swabs being carried out increasing from 2764 to an estimated 6750 in the
current financial year - a rise of more than 150 per cent," Mr Hogan said.
Other integrity improvements included a new control room at GRNSW's head
office in Rhodes, where stewards can watch live broadcasts of races, and
surveillance from the kennel blocks.

Members of the Greyhound Racing Industry Consultation Group, which was set
up to advise and make recommendations to GRNSW, have also complained about
drug swab procedures and a perception that high-profile trainers are not
receiving the same attention and their positive swabs are being kept quiet.

A meeting of the group reported that the industry needed to bring back the
random element in the choice of which greyhounds are to be swabbed.
Previously, dog owners would spin ''swab marbles'' - and if the red marble
came up, their animals would be swabbed. Stewards could also impose swabs at
their discretion, but the consultation group was told the random system
''would stop any perception of collusion between trainers''. But the
recommendation put to GRNSW has been refused.

Dr Zammit said: ''The issue there is a lack of transparency - particularly
about who gets swabbed and when.

''There a lot of new drugs that are hard to detect and we need to do more
tests so we can find things. I think the authority is trying to do the right
thing but it does not have the structure to do it.''

David Allen, the greyhound breeder who has stopped racing in NSW, says he
took his suspicions about possible race-fixing and money laundering - made
with big plunges on several races - to the previous integrity auditor, Mr
Costigan, but they were never acknowledged. ''My complaint should have been
examined. The problem is there is no overarching authority.''

Do you know more? n.obrien@fairfaxmedia.com.au