Police News

Cult leader Davis.

Alleged Crimes of the East

Words Gary Larson

Maroubra woman kept as slave, AFP allege

A woman is alleged to have been kept as a slave in Maroubra for two years, according to charges laid by Australian Federal Police against a man who heads a controversial northern NSW polygamy cult.

It is alleged that before he moved up north, James Davis (pictured) subjected the woman to a life of slavery in Maroubra between June 2013 and July 2015.

Former soldier Davis, 40, is facing charges of possessing a slave and causing a person to live in servitude.

Solicitor jailed for ripping off dead clients

A corrupt Edgecliff lawyer and his wife splurged $3.4 million on a Bondi Junction home for their retirement - funded by money he had plundered from the accounts of dead clients.

Mark O’Brien, 64, milked more than $6 million from funds which deceased clients had bequeathed to charities. He received a 10 year sentence after being convicted of multiple fraud charges. But he should make it out around the time of his 70th birthday because the judge set a non-parole period of six years.

The fallen solicitor was a partner with Edgecliff firm Harrington, Maguire and O’Brien. He specialised in business law and wills. He used his knowledge to weave a web of deception, forging the letterheads of St Vincent de Paul and other charities to create fake receipts. Funds were channelled into the purchase and furnishing of the Bondi Junction house plus $400,000 nest eggs for each of his three adult children. There was also a superannuation fund which would help O’Brien and his accomplice - his wife Therese, the mother of those $400k kids - live out the autumn of their years in comfort.

Therese was in on the fraudulent game from the beginning, when they used the illicit funds to pay off two mortgages on their previous home in North Bondi before moving into the retirement pad in Woodstock Street, near Waverley Oval. Standing alongside her husband in the Downing Centre District Court, 63-year-old Therese received a three-year intensive corrections order on separate fraud charges. They kissed, then her partner was handcuffed and taken down to the cells by sheriffs.

Randwick woman targeted in ATO phone scam

Police say a retired Randwick nurse handed over $15,000 to a phone scammer who claimed he was from the Australian Taxation Office.

Investigators have been told the caller threatened the 66-year-old woman with arrest before transferring her to a man who claimed to be a police officer. “The woman was intimidated over a number of hours before withdrawing $15,000 from her account,” police said.

She organised to hand over the funds to the ‘ATO official’ at her home. A young man showed up at her door and she gave him the cash. But, police said, “she was able to obtain a photo of him before handing over the money.”

The woman went to the police with her photo and details of the scam. Eastern Beaches Police Area Command commenced an investigation and quickly tracked down a 21-yearold Wollongong man who has been charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.

Bondi identity has COVID charges dismissed

Budgie smuggler-wearing, muscle-flexing Bondi Beach figure Dimitri Moskovich has had COVID breach and resisting police charges dismissed.

Moskovich, 55, was arrested during the beach lockdowns in April last year when, wearing his trademark red Speedos and loudly protesting his innocence, he was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and bundled into a paddy wagon at North Bondi.

All charges were dismissed at Downing Centre Local Court and police have agreed to pay his $25,000 legal fees.

Woman goes berko in Junction

A woman allegedly went berserk in a Bondi Junction shopping centre, attacking a female off-duty police officer and members of the public.

Police said the officer was trying to arrest the woman for a series of random assaults before being violently assaulted herself. The senior constable was allegedly “kicked, choked, bitten on the arm, struck in the face and had hair pulled from her scalp.” Members of the public who came to the aid of the officer were allegedly scratched and bitten by the woman.

The 34-year-old was subdued by officers from Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command, who took her to Waverley Police Station where she was charged with multiple offences including assault and property damage.