Perth Mint Swindle
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The Perth Mint Swindle is the popular name of a gold robbery at the Perth Mint in Perth, Western Australia which happened on 22 June 1982. A total of 49 gold bars weighing 68 kg were stolen. The value of the gold at the time was then worth $653,000.
Three men, all brothers were arrested and convicted, but all their convictions were eventually overturned.
Twenty four years later the case remains unsolved and continues to be fought by the Mickelbergs who maintain their innocence and allege a conspiracy by the police to frame them.
[edit] The Mickelberg brothers
Soon after the robbery police investigations focused on three brothers, Ray, Peter and Brian Mickelberg who in 1983 were tried and sentenced to twenty, sixteen and twelve years in jail respectively.
After serving nine months of his jail term and having his conviction overturned on appeal, Brian was released from jail but died in an air crash in 1986 when the twin engine plane he was flying ran out of fuel and crashed near Mundaring Weir. Whilst in prison, Ray and Peter embarked on a series of seven appeals against their convictions, essentially on the grounds that their confessions had been fabricated. Ray and Peter served eight and six years of their sentences respectively before being released on parole.
According to the police, the Mickelberg brothers stole cheques from a Perth building society and then fooled the mint into accepting those cheques in exchange for gold bullion, which it was alleged, the brothers had picked up by a courier. The gold was picked up by a security company who delivered it to an office in Perth and then to Jandakot Airport, from where it seemingly disappeared.
In a bizarre twist, in 1989 55 kg of gold pellets, presumed to have been from the swindle, were found outside the gates of TVW-7 (currently Channel Seven Perth), a Perth television station, with a note addressed to one of the stations reporters, protesting the Mickelberg's innocence and claiming that a prominent Perth businessman was behind the swindle.
In 2002, midway through a State Royal Commission into police corruption, a retired police officer who had been at the centre of the case and who was present at the interviews with the Mickelbergs, Tony Lewandowski, made a confession of his involvement in fabricating evidence which was used to help frame the brothers. He was subsequently charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, making false statements, fabricating evidence and perjury. In May 2004, just before facing trial, Lewandowski committed suicide.
Lewandowski's senior officer during the investigation and the other person who had been present at the brothers' interviews was Detective Sergeant Don Hancock (see Crime in Perth) who later went on to become head of the State's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB). Hancock was directly implicated in fabricating evidence by Lewandowski's confession. In September 2001 in an apparently unrelated issue, Hancock was murdered after a car bomb planted under his car exploded outside his home in Rivervale, killing him and a friend Lou Lewis.
In July 2004 the Western Australian Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the brothers' convictions after seven unsuccessful attempts. The Assistant Police Commissioner, Mel Hay, expressed disappointment with the decision to quash the convictions which prompted a threat of a defamation lawsuit from the brothers. The State is currently considering an ex-gratia payment to the Mickelbergs as compensation for their imprisonment.
In September 2005, the Mickelbergs announced that a package, alleged to have belonged to Lewandowski and containing police log books and other notes made by him was delivered to them from his Thai girlfriend. The girlfriend was said to have been given the package prior to Lewandowski's suicide.
[edit] A book about the case
Author Avon Lovell wrote a book about the case, The Mickelberg Stitch in which he described questionable investigation practices by the Western Australian Police Force and made allegations of unsigned confessions and a forged fingerprint. The police union collected a levy of $1 per week from each member to fund legal action against Lovell and his publishers and distributors to suppress publication of the book. It was estimated that between one and two million dollars was raised.
The book was in fact banned by the State Government, but was still freely available to be read at the Battye Library. The ban was eventually lifted.
[edit] References
- MelbourneCrime Don Hancock and the Perth Mint Swindle (read: September 7, 2005)
- Sydney Morning Herald Mint swindle officer seized(read: September 7, 2005)
- Post Newspapers This time, the stitch is by Lovell (read: September 7, 2005)
- ABC News online Micklebergs cleared over Perth Mint swindle
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