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POLICE IN AUSTRALIA have held a press conference as part of an appeal for information about ‘Irish scammers’ who it is alleged have been responsible for a spate of offences across the Gold Coast region.
Queensland Police are investigating 12 separate complaints which have occurred since January involving nine people, all believed to be “Irish tourists”.
The force has released images of a number of men and women who may be able to assist with their investigations.
“We have a number of allegations in regard to what we believe to be Irish tourists who are believed to be involved in or suspected to be involved in a number of scams in the Brisbane and Gold Coast areas,” Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming told a media briefing yesterday.
We have a group of males and group of females, there’s a suspicion about whether they’re connected or not, but we’re working on that.
“I need to make it clear that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but we have a number of allegations and we have an investigation in place. No one has yet been put before the courts,” he added.
Some of the complaints being investigated by police include the theft of money and goods from retail stores.
In restaurants, there are allegations that the individuals have been obtaining free food and beverages from restaurants by claiming that foreign objects, such as glass, are in their food.
Other complaints relate to a group of men who have been offering discounted repairs to driveways and roofing before allegedly carrying out sub-standard work or not carrying out the work at all.
Fleming told the press conference that some of the allegations included elderly persons being defrauded of sums in between $6,000 to $25,000.
There is also an allegation of assault.
“The females, which are believed to include some children, have targeted some retail stores in a number of ways and have tricked or confused store attendants and the allegations include stealing and trickery in order to obtain a benefit,” Fleming said.
On 30 January, two women distracted a staff member in a city store and the allegation is that the child associated with them stole some shoes and placed them in a pram.
In general, Fleming said that the individuals appear to be targeting “small businesses and the elderly”.
“They are good at creating diversions, distractions or disruptions to either steal goods or demand goods and services for free. They are aggressive and usually work in groups of two or more,” Fleming said.
Social media
Police said there have been numerous complaints alleging scamming by people with Irish accents in a short period and they are encouraging people to contact police and not merely post about alleged incidents on social media.
“I need to say at the outset that there’s been a lot of allegations around a particular group of people, what we know from experience is that what we can prove can often be a different matter,” Fleming said.
He added that he would encourage the individuals themselves to get in touch:
We do have some serious allegations and we’d very much like to hear their side of the story. So if the people are hearing the media today, we would encourage them to ring 131-444 or go into any police station.
Australian media has been reporting extensively about the allegations and a number of reporters asked the detective superintendent how the individuals had not yet been caught.
“There’s a bit of an art and craft to this and they’re highly mobile, they generally don’t stay in one place too long. My experience tells me they’re generally alert to the practices of police,” Fleming said.
Based on the CCTV, they don’t seem to be concerned about being seen or detected. So either they haven’t done anything wrong, or they’re incredibly brazen and they have no respect for the law. And more importantly they don’t have any respect for people in the community.
Queensland Police says it is taking the allegations seriously and now has a dedicated team working on the case.
Police have also been working with the Australian Border Force to see if the individuals can be deported if they are caught and the allegations are proven.
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Some neck on these two.
@The Viking: I guess if you were in their situation and facing years in prison we all chance your arm at anything.
The arrogance of these people is hard for me to take. It’s obvious there guilty
@Paul O Riordan: They didn’t offer any real defence in court as they knew it would be ripped apart by the prosecution.
I have to say I was shocked to see the jury members say what they were saying on the TV. I thought there would be some sort of instruction not to speak to the media about their jury duty.
@Paul Mc Nulty: it’s certainly not the way things are done here. But apparently the judge would have needed to issue the jurors with a gag order, which he didn’t.
@Donnachaín Ní Uallacháin: or issue the media with an order not to harass jurors in any trial. The media is at fault here not the jury. Media are supposed to be professional the jurors are lay people not used to dealing with the law or madia outlets.
I just hope the conviction is upheld but if a new trial is called i hope they are convicted of murder 1
I had several issues with the claims of the two. The number of blows, time elapsed before calling for aid, and her rubbing at her neck during police custody. Additionally, if my father were in the position of hers, he would come to my defence with fists, not a bat. He would be up and running, not stopping for a weapon.
@Rathminder: also telling is the fact that he told police that he woke to hear them arguing and stomping around upstairs and he went up with the intention of telling them to ‘knock it off’. Why would he bring a baseball bat to do that? And he was still wearing his watch which is unusual as most people would take their watch off before going to bed. Unless he stopped to put it back on again before going for the baseball bat.
As he is a former member of the FBI, i would have thought he would have been able to commit, cover up and justify the murder in a more professional manner
@Anne Marie Devlin: He may not have been very good at his job. The police said the crime scene was altered.
It was obvious that Molly Martens was told to wear loose-fitting dresses, flat shoes and a ponytail to portray the small, innocent schoolgirl look. They tried to portray Jason Corbett as a big, violent Irish lout. They banked too heavily on the typical Irish stereotype. I think it would have been prudent for the judge to issue a gag order in this case because this pair will stop at nothing. They just can’t accept the fact that they are not above the law.
So two murderers are putting their faith in a technicality to get off.
@Niallers: Unfortunately it is often more thsn enough to get away with murder.
US attorneys go out of their way to tell their clients how to look and act, and pick jurors based on their estimates of their prejudices based on age, gender and background.
When their sociopath clients show no remorse in the courtroom they then complain that the same jurors judged their clients based on prejudice against sociopaths.
As much as I like hearing jurors talk about their cases after the fact, they should have some advice from judges about how to phrase any statements so as not to leave open doors to appeal from public statements.
I don’t think the jurors were swayed by outside influences.
More like the the fact that they were bloody guilty!
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