there, and they would tell him of police getting ‘freebies’ and on occasion giving the prostitutes ‘back-handers’.
The job on this occasion, along with the Gold Coast CIB, was to take a look around a penthouse suite that had been turned into a bar and strip club.
Powell and three other Brisbane Licensing Branch men drove down to Surfers Paradise. ‘With another officer, I go in there, it’s 9.30 p.m.,’ says Powell. ‘We’re standing out like dogs’ balls. We’ve had a few drinks. We get up to this place, knock on the door, [but] it’s still way too early. A woman comes to the door. They’re still setting up behind her.’
Powell told the woman he would come back later, but she asked him to wait. ‘Then the guy who’s running it [the club] comes to the door. He says, come in. He looks at the three-piece suit. I haven’t got a story worked out or anything.’
A topless waitress approached Powell’s group and asked them if they’d like a drink. They observed a ‘bit of gaming, bit of porn, a sex show, but no evidence of prostitution’.
Nevertheless, Powell believed he had enough to lay some charges and made his excuses so he could go directly to the nearby Gold Coast CIB offices to obtain the necessary warrants. Before he left, he asked: ‘That blonde in the show, does she do anything else?’
‘She’ll be waiting for you when you get back,’ he was told.
‘How much?’ he asked.
‘I’ll find out.’
Powell returned with the warrants and men from both the local CIB and the Brisbane Licensing Branch. There was a ruckus at the door as they entered the club. Everyone was asked to keep calm.
Powell later said in evidence to the Fitzgerald Inquiry: ‘While the investigation was proceeding and the penthouse was still full of customers and potential defendants, Detective Pat Glancy of the Gold Coast CIB stood in the middle of the penthouse and abused me savagely, calling me a fucking cunt and accusing me of “giving up my mates”.
‘I was allowed … to go downstairs and look after the liquor exhibits. As I was checking the truck with the liquor exhibits in it, I saw members of the Gold Coast CIB exit through another door towards their vehicles, which were on the other side of the building.’ Powell says, ‘the scales are falling from my eyes at this point’.
He later learned that a cash box from the club containing up to $2000 had vanished. ‘It was apparent to me that [Glancy] was extremely agitated at the thought that Licensing Branch detectives were on the Gold Coast,’ Powell said in the statement.
Powell returned to Brisbane and mentally filed away the penthouse experience. Not long after, he received a phone call at home from his boss, Graeme Parker. ‘He told me I was transferred to Woolloongabba,’ Powell said. ‘I asked him if there was any particular reason for the transfer and he said that there was not.’
Parker explained to Powell later that one of the Lucas Royal Commission recommendations from the 1970s was that Licensing Branch officers should stay only two years in the branch to avoid any possibility of institutionalised corruption. Powell knew that Parker himself and colleagues Bulger and ‘Dirty Harry’ Burgess had all been in the branch longer than two years.
Despite this, before his transfer took effect, Powell continued his investigations into Hector Hapeta’s growing empire. He typed up yet another report on Hapeta’s plans to set up a club without a liquor licence called Pharaoh’s.
‘In that information sheet I identified a person whom I believed worked in the Hapeta/Tilley organisation who may be a “weak link” who could eventually provide evidence sufficient to prosecute Hapeta for his illegal activities,’ said Powell. ‘I put the information sheet in an envelope and put it under Inspector Parker’s door.
‘The next day I was working day shift and I went to see him. Inspector Parker threw the information sheet back at me. Parker’s
The job on this occasion, along with the Gold Coast CIB, was to take a look around a penthouse suite that had been turned into a bar and strip club.
Powell and three other Brisbane Licensing Branch men drove down to Surfers Paradise. ‘With another officer, I go in there, it’s 9.30 p.m.,’ says Powell. ‘We’re standing out like dogs’ balls. We’ve had a few drinks. We get up to this place, knock on the door, [but] it’s still way too early. A woman comes to the door. They’re still setting up behind her.’
Powell told the woman he would come back later, but she asked him to wait. ‘Then the guy who’s running it [the club] comes to the door. He says, come in. He looks at the three-piece suit. I haven’t got a story worked out or anything.’
A topless waitress approached Powell’s group and asked them if they’d like a drink. They observed a ‘bit of gaming, bit of porn, a sex show, but no evidence of prostitution’.
Nevertheless, Powell believed he had enough to lay some charges and made his excuses so he could go directly to the nearby Gold Coast CIB offices to obtain the necessary warrants. Before he left, he asked: ‘That blonde in the show, does she do anything else?’
‘She’ll be waiting for you when you get back,’ he was told.
‘How much?’ he asked.
‘I’ll find out.’
Powell returned with the warrants and men from both the local CIB and the Brisbane Licensing Branch. There was a ruckus at the door as they entered the club. Everyone was asked to keep calm.
Powell later said in evidence to the Fitzgerald Inquiry: ‘While the investigation was proceeding and the penthouse was still full of customers and potential defendants, Detective Pat Glancy of the Gold Coast CIB stood in the middle of the penthouse and abused me savagely, calling me a fucking cunt and accusing me of “giving up my mates”.
‘I was allowed … to go downstairs and look after the liquor exhibits. As I was checking the truck with the liquor exhibits in it, I saw members of the Gold Coast CIB exit through another door towards their vehicles, which were on the other side of the building.’ Powell says, ‘the scales are falling from my eyes at this point’.
He later learned that a cash box from the club containing up to $2000 had vanished. ‘It was apparent to me that [Glancy] was extremely agitated at the thought that Licensing Branch detectives were on the Gold Coast,’ Powell said in the statement.
Powell returned to Brisbane and mentally filed away the penthouse experience. Not long after, he received a phone call at home from his boss, Graeme Parker. ‘He told me I was transferred to Woolloongabba,’ Powell said. ‘I asked him if there was any particular reason for the transfer and he said that there was not.’
Parker explained to Powell later that one of the Lucas Royal Commission recommendations from the 1970s was that Licensing Branch officers should stay only two years in the branch to avoid any possibility of institutionalised corruption. Powell knew that Parker himself and colleagues Bulger and ‘Dirty Harry’ Burgess had all been in the branch longer than two years.
Despite this, before his transfer took effect, Powell continued his investigations into Hector Hapeta’s growing empire. He typed up yet another report on Hapeta’s plans to set up a club without a liquor licence called Pharaoh’s.
‘In that information sheet I identified a person whom I believed worked in the Hapeta/Tilley organisation who may be a “weak link” who could eventually provide evidence sufficient to prosecute Hapeta for his illegal activities,’ said Powell. ‘I put the information sheet in an envelope and put it under Inspector Parker’s door.
‘The next day I was working day shift and I went to see him. Inspector Parker threw the information sheet back at me. Parker’s
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