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Police Raids

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On 9/26/2018 at 8:19 PM, MAJESTIC said:

Interesting to note that no drivers notified for the R J Dunn horses for Addington Friday night. With driver engagement notification down for 1.00pm today was the trainer awaiting some devine intervention. Also notice other horse(s) without driver engagement. Does a fine get imposed for no notification by the set time of 1.00pm as set out in the programme conditions on the HRNZ site? There have been updates to the fields since 1.00pm close off.

Failed to get a mention in the Stipes Report.

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Jury to hear harness race-fixing cases

David Clarkson12:35, Oct 02 2018
Twelve defendants arrested in the Operation Inca harness racing investigation made appearances in court on Tuesday. (File photo)
RICKY WILSON/STUFF
Twelve defendants arrested in the Operation Inca harness racing investigation made appearances in court on Tuesday. (File photo)

Several harness racing industry figures are denying fraud conspiracy charges alleging race fixing and electing trial by jury.

Not guilty pleas were entered before Judge Raoul Neave at a Christchurch District Court session on Tuesday where 12 defendants arrested in the Operation Inca investigation made appearances.

Bail conditions were relaxed as well, with the consent of the police prosecutor Barnaby Hawes. Passports can be returned to the defendants and they now only have bail conditions requiring them to live at specified addresses. All are on bail.

Those who pleaded not guilty were remanded to a Crown case review hearing on March 25, but the cases will also be reviewed before then, on December 5.

Several of those charged were refused interim suppression at a session before Judge Neave on September 11 but the order has been continued while they file appeal applications in the High Court.

Those appeals are due to be filed on October 9 and the suppressions will continue until the hearings.

A separate court sitting was arranged to deal with 12 of the Operation Inca defendants. A 13th is appearing in the North Island.

Three men aged 26, 35, and 71 are still to enter pleas on race fixing charges.

Suppression was granted to one additional defendant, aged 50, who had been refused earlier but was appealing. He faces one race fixing charge. It means suppression will continue to March 25.

Four new charges – three race fixing and one of possessing ecstasy tablets for supply – were laid against a man, aged 29, who already faced two charges of offering to supply the drug.

Another  man, Andrew Douglas Stewart, 41, of Loburn, pleaded not guilty to three race fixing charges and elected trial by jury. He has never had suppression and although the issue was raised by defence counsel Chris McVeigh QC, Judge Neave declined to grant it. That decision is not being appealed.

Nigel Raymond McGrath, a 44-year-old horse trainer from Rolleston, facing one race fixing charge, has pleaded not guilty and elected trial. He got the same remand and suppression was also refused. He is not appealing.

Some defendants have been remanded without plea to the review on December 5 on charges, which cannot be reported in detail. Charges which can be reported include offering or supplying ecstasy. Pleas are expected to be entered on that date.

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Four harness racing figures deny race fixing charges

 

Four harness racing figures have denied fixing-related charges in connection to the police investigation Operation Inca.

Twelve people appeared in the District Court in Christchurch on Tuesday following the 17-month police probe.

Trainer's Andrew Stuart, 41, and Nigel McGrath both pleaded not guilty to race fixing related charges and elected trial. Christchurch hairdresser Eli Sawma also appeared on drug related charges. 

The other nine people who appeared in court all have name suppression. Two others denied their charges and elected trial by jury, while the others have yet to enter pleas.

All will have their cases heard on December 5.

Police raided 11 harness racing stables and dwellings across the country in September. Search warrants were executed on nine properties in Christchurch, and one each in Manawatu and Invercargill as a result of the long-running probe into the industry.

The investigation was sparked by the Racing Integrity Unit (RIU), which tipped off police with information of the alleged illegal activity. 

The RIU has barred those charged by police from attending harness racing meetings, workouts and trials while the investigation continues. 

Another man, 47-year-old horse racing administrator Brent Wall also denies a charge of deception by match-fixing and is expected to reappear in court on October 23.

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2 hours ago, scooby3051 said:

The investigation was sparked by the Racing Integrity Unit (RIU), which tipped off police with information of the alleged illegal activity. 

That's a new twist for me, I thought it was a tip-off to the RIU that started it all.  How did it start, anyone know the actual facts?  The way everyone, including Winston the other day, saying that it proves the systems and processes work I have to speculate that the investigation started from within the organisations.

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15 hours ago, Harness4All said:

That's a new twist for me, I thought it was a tip-off to the RIU that started it all.  How did it start, anyone know the actual facts?  The way everyone, including Winston the other day, saying that it proves the systems and processes work I have to speculate that the investigation started from within the organisations.

 

February last year there was a story circulating around on Fairfax websites regarding potential race fixing that had been going on. Martin van Beynen was the journalist. He'd been tipped off by an unidentified source who contacted him. Now, the rest is presumed to have been what happened, but as a result of the story, the RIU have conducted some of their own investigations, determined that there was some potential truth behind the original story and then decided it stretched far further than what their jurisdiction allowed so therefore handed the information over to the police.

The Police have then undertaken at least 16 months of surveillance and investigating which led to the raids. 

 

 

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 Interesting counter punch.  Ive always thought the tip off would have come from a betting organization who was being stung. Who knows.

The press reporter at the time was rubbished.

Rob Lawson was quoted in that story as saying these type of allegations are' mostly,in fact always, untrue.'

At the time I thought,and it was rumoured ,a race in question was the eamon maguire run at tuapeka. The day that race was run I started a thread on this website about the failure of the stipes to take appropriate action against the driver concerned. Obviously it was too late for the police to investigate that race,but in hindsight the over the top criticism of the press writer on social media seems to have been  very unfair.

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7 minutes ago, what a post said:

At the time I thought,and it was rumoured ,a race in question was the eamon maguire run at tuapeka. The day that race was run I started a thread on this website about the failure of the stipes to take appropriate action against the driver concerned.

The stipes lack of action was consistent with their observations that day.

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7 minutes ago, what a post said:

 Interesting counter punch.  Ive always thought the tip off would have come from a betting organization who was being stung. Who knows.

That's my thinking too. Suggests that the original investigation started by information provided from the NZRB(TAB) as it progressed quickly from RIU to Police so there had to be significant information supplied to support the allegations.  Similarly to obtain the digital search warrants, there had to be at least strong credible information.  So either that original tip-off came from betting agency or someone in the betting ring who had been aggrieved for some reason.

It interests me because regardless of what happens in the court cases the controlling organisations should be say something like "we are learning from all this and taking action to ensure it will be quickly identified and dealt with in future". Right now I am left with no confidence in any of the controlling organisations having the processes, tools, skills etc to address match fixing (race or sport) in the future.

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1 hour ago, what a post said:

 Interesting counter punch.  Ive always thought the tip off would have come from a betting organization who was being stung. Who knows.

 

 

Nothing 100 per cent certain, but I'm pretty sure the information was given to the journalist by a person involved in the racing industry. A person who was duped, or felt aggrieved by an incident which may, or may not, have taken place. 

 

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46 minutes ago, Counter Punch said:

 

 

Nothing 100 per cent certain, but I'm pretty sure the information was given to the journalist by a person involved in the racing industry. A person who was duped, or felt aggrieved by an incident which may, or may not, have taken place. 

 

I wonder if that was the person that tweeted that those charged should not be allowed on course and once that was the case withdrew the tweet. Tweet was up for a few hours rather than a few days.

Always thought that was curious.

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2 hours ago, Counter Punch said:

 

February last year there was a story circulating around on Fairfax websites regarding potential race fixing that had been going on. Martin van Beynen was the journalist. He'd been tipped off by an unidentified source who contacted him. Now, the rest is presumed to have been what happened, but as a result of the story, the RIU have conducted some of their own investigations, determined that there was some potential truth behind the original story and then decided it stretched far further than what their jurisdiction allowed so therefore handed the information over to the police.

The Police have then undertaken at least 16 months of surveillance and investigating which led to the raids. 

 

 

From what you say CP and what i heard  the RIU may well have been looking at things well before that race. Also, when this all goes to court one wonders if their  betting analyst is used as a prosecution witness.

More questions than answers  currently but given that warrants were issued to NOCG there must surely be something untoward

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1 hour ago, LongOwner said:

Just shows RIU incompetent who cannot do what they are paid to do and escalated the rumour to police involvement then 18 months make a couple of charges .

Without the drug issue getting caught in the drag net the effort v’s time v’s cost ( my taxes paid for this ) a total  out of proportion result .

Should of been handled - if an issue - 18 months ago !

So you the pious one who have been defending the defendants and their right to earn a living have changed your tune pretty quickly to now throw your toys out about RIU. Is it factual that the underlined above occurred otherwise you deserve to be sued . Put up your facts cos if you don't i will  send your above post to RIU for them to deal with you if they so desire.

Further , as the matter is  before the courts how can you possibly make your second sentence. Do you know the prosecution case backwards, the tape recording contents and the betting records. Quite simply you cant have access to these and other pertinent details so you are full of it.

You deserve to be red carded from this forum unless you substantiate your accusations

 

Heres a little reminder from an earlier post

On 9/20/2018 at 9:08 PM, LongOwner said:

Why should I - most on here need reminding about innocent until otherwise . 

As I said above...everyone please just think before posting... nobody has been proven to have done anything wrong... those who want to judge guilty or not and post unsubstantiated rubbish can go elsewhere and post all the hearsay they want but please not here everyone is innocent here until proven otherwise.

 

So everyone's innocent except RIU and its staff and this is all there fault. You really are a hypocrite

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On 10/3/2018 at 7:33 PM, Kotare_Hunter said:

He has fought a long hard fight.

Not, the guy has had issues with authorities in earlier threads and got warned about his posts from memory.

We dont want this forum to turn out like the others with bad language and unsubstantiated rubbish being posted without any  moderation.Its not fair to those who are defamed

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Tuesdays publicity over the race-fixing got me thinking !

Firstly , the level of regulation in recent years means Harness racing has probably never been 'cleaner' or ' fairer'.

Cameras everywhere, regular drug testing , more rules, heavy fines ,advertising for tip offs, more stipes ,trials/workouts etc etc....though it could be argued that the rating/handicapping system actually encourages horses to be given 'quiet' runs to drop points to become competitive ! 

I note the race -fixing charges now seem filtered away from the party pill issues which IMO clouded and sensationalised things from day 1.

My guess is that some , at least , will be proven not guilty ,despite many saying on here that the evidence is 'mind-blowing' etc.

This investigation has taken over 17 months , and some of the accused face just ONE charge.....maybe the charge is a race course certainty.

Ive heard many rumours from friends of friends ,their neighbours and motherinlaws ,including many who claim to be in the know including inside the TAB ...one race which comes up is the Derby....rumours about team driving ,injecting horses on day of race , conspiring to have the favourite  run out of first 4,quiet lead up runs  etc. For mine ,this was the most competitive race of the season and it was a Group 1.

If the authorities are hanging their hopes on this race ,after 17 months of hiding in bushes and wire-tapping I'd say good luck !

 

 

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