The case and conviction that got me a five year jail sentence.
First published – May 25 2007.
In this piece that is ten A4 pages in length Big Dave tells us all about the eight year drama surrounding a single event.
It began with some business competition attempting to hijack his customers and it ended with a five year prison term.
Its an honest and open piece with snippets of documentation from the case supplied by Big Dave.
From the crime to the court room.
From prison to parole.
Check it out people.
As I promised I am finally going to put pen to paper and fill you all in on the event that got me my five year sentence.
It‟s basically a tale of how greed can make a good thing go bad.
As always I will be 100% factual and anyone that wish‟s to say the shit isn‟t real should first visit public records looking for Parsons vs The Queen, ACT Supreme court.
Firstly before I begin I would like to clear some stuff up as there has been things said about what went down in the Canberra times and around the way that aren‟t true.
If you live in Canberra and saw the coverage of this event in the Canberra times stating that we wore balaclava‟s that‟s bullshit, we had no problems with these guys seeing our face, it was integral that they knew who did this to them and why it happened.
The rumour around Canberra that we stuck a shotgun in one of there mouths is also bullshit, I suspect it was the guys we did this to that started that rumour but we did not have any firearms.
I will also confirm the rumour that the guys we did this to did drop there dealers name in court with no regard for respect or loyalty.
Anyway everything is contained in my rundown.
The charges me and my mates were convicted of were armed robbery and two assaults through a “joint criminal enterprise” law.
To explain a “Joint criminal enterprise”; say for example a bank robber and get away driver are caught but the cops aren‟t smart enough or lack enough evidence to prove which guy held a gun and which one held a set of car keys so they just bust them both for holding the gun.
The only necessity to charge them both is that they were both aware that the crime would happen, yes that does mean someone in the back seat uninvolved in the crime would also be busted for holding the gun if they heard it was going to happen!
We were convicted of these charges but plead not guilty and fought every step of the way on principle of what this case really was.
A waste of our time and a waste of tax payers money.
It all happened around 9pm one night in 1999, it was a hell of a long time ago but for me it is only just about to be finished when my parole expires on November 24th 2007.
Prior to the event I had become a rather prosperous weed dealer around Canberra, I won‟t get into quantities and financial amounts because then it gets into bragging and that is the last thing Im here trying to do.
People sold more then me and people sold less then me, I was not a gangsta or a drug lord I was just a guy trying to be successful in this world using the tools available to me, I hustled hard and for a while it worked.
Also I will not be mentioning who did what on the night by name I will just call us mr 1, 2, 3, 4 and mr bitch.
I will name the people involved though for being crown witness bitches.
They have appeared as witnesses against me and my friends in a public trial I have every legal right to name them!
Running up to the event a crew of people going by the names of Luke Tanswell, Morgan Lewer, Luke Alchin, Duncan Le Fluer, Cedric Le Fluer, Kirsty Kale and Naomi Travers had all been operating an operation from a unit in the Canberra suburb of Mawson selling speed, weed and sex.
I could understand the dope dealing but if you saw these chicks, no sale!
So this unit is on a hill over looking the tennis court and ovals in Mawson where I happened to meet a lot of clients several times a day.
These cheeky pricks were sitting out the back of their unit smoking weed, watching me drop off to my people and then heading down and trying to poach them from me for their own business!
I was always known for my quick service, good product and cheap prices so most of the time the people didn‟t switch suppliers they just rang and told me what had happened.
At first it was kind of amusing but after a few days it started to really get annoying so I brought it up with Mr 2.
Mr 2 was one of my best friends and tragically he only lived a short time after these events.
Any time there was drama Mr 2 was right there at my back, he also gave me so much life advice that I still revisit to this day.
Mr 2 was also a straight up nutter with more heart then anyone I have ever met!
Mr 2 was not impressed with these new guys setting up a few suburbs across town especially when we discovered Tanswell and his poofter associates were also moving speed in the area, an area Mr 2 was moving into.
After discussing things with Mr 2 it became evident that we would have to squash these guys.
So in came Mr bitch and a mate, we started them scoring of Tanswell and co to get an idea of what was up and how they did things.
After a couple of weeks our mate had a map of the flat for us and Mr bitch had got himself a good idea of how things went down in the unit.
I was sitting at my townhouse with a girlfriend of the time, Mr bitch and my housemate/ business partner on the fateful night of the event just smoking pipes and relaxing when Mr 2 showed up.
Mr 2 had brought a good mate of ours over Mr 3 and a guy that used to run errands for us who we will call Mr 4.
We were supposed to make our move around midnight but a few things had come up so they had come to do it early.
Other then Mr bitch this was a pretty formidable team, all these guys were 6 foot 2 or taller and the biggest weighed 160kg‟s.
So we got sorted, no fire arms were used we went old school, baseball bats and police issue extendable batons.
We also used two way radio‟s to keep in touch during the business.
After me and Mr 2 had a few pipes to calm the pre game jitters we headed out the door leaving my housemate and the girl at home.
Mr 4 had wanted to suck in some THC too but he was brain dead at the best of times so Mr 2 said no.
We got into Mr 4‟s 1992 Fairlane ghia all dressed in black, beanies and caps then started the drive to “The crest” apartments to see Tanswell and associates.
The word from Mr bitch was that these guys always checked the peephole and only let in current customers.
So the plan was Mr bitch was to go in and score.
During his purchase he was suppose to leave his mobile phone in the unit apparently by accident so he could then phone the unit and say “I left my phone Im just out the front be in in two seconds” that way as he knocks while they are waiting to open the door and we fly into the stairwell and in the door.
Simple.
Not so simple, Mr bitch was hopeless and even this small part was to much for him, he left the mobile in plain site and they handed it to him as he walked out the door.
Mr bitch meekly came up to us in the carpark where we were waiting for him and told us he had failed.
Plan b then had to come into effect, Mr 3 was to clip the two way to his shoulder, put on this cap that looked like a cop hat and then knock on the door calling out police open up.
With the stairwell light off he would look the part and as he would walk in everyone else could rush the door.
As bats came out and caps got pulled down low Mr bitch disappeared into the bushes because as expected the sight of any action freaked him out.
As the three big fella's headed to the unit I turned the car around and stayed in contact listening in on a two way radio and occasionally sticking my head in the door to see how things were panning out.
As expected yelling “Police open up” got the door open and Mr 3 knocked the first guy that opened the door straight to the floor with one hit from a bat.
Mr Bitch had said there had been only four people home but it turned out to be five guys and two chicks.
As the lads came in the door screaming and telling everyone to get on the ground Mr 2 smashed a glass pipe and a table with his bat for effect.
In the excitement and commotion Travers and one of the Le Fluer brothers escaped out of a back sliding door that Mr bitch had failed to tell us about but other then that everyone in the unit hit the deck and didn‟t look up as instructed.
Alchin briefly glanced at Mr 2 but found the following knee in the back a good reason not to look again.
As planned Tanswell was dragged around his unit grabbing weed and cash for the boys, funnily enough using the “police” thing to gain entry had caused them to get rid of the speed which I always found ironic.
After taking Tanswell around the house it became apparent that the $600 dollars he had on him was far from his nest egg and to our shock he produced a bank statement showing he was depositing a heap of cash into an account, the same account as his dole payments!
After grasping this guy‟s stupidity the lads lined up the occupants and relieved them of jewellery, cash etc and then ransacked the house for valuable items.
By this stage I was chilling in the car listening in on the two way and keeping an eye out but I was becoming worried about the amount of time this thing was taking as it had been around 15 minutes.
After delivering the final message to shut up shop or face the consequences, the lads came running to the car with arm loads of crap that they then threw in to the car as mr 4 jumped in the drivers seat and hit the gas.
It turned out that while the business was being taken care of the chick that escaped out the sliding door had run to a neighbouring house and called the police.
YES that‟s right some dope dealing hooker called the cops because her drugs were being stolen!
“The Crest” apartments have two entry/exit points and as the lads removed their gloves and we were exiting the complex a cop car had entered from the other side and now had its lights flashing and siren on as it came up the ass of our Ford.
Myself, Mr 2 and Mr 3 screamed at Mr 4 to take off and drive away but he lost his nerve at the crucial moment and we pulled over.
We could have escaped as it was our own backyard.
As we pulled to the curb coppers came from everywhere; bikes, cars marked and unmarked, paddy wagons the whole deal.
The lads had managed to throw the gloves but the cops had seen it and were already picking them up.
They held us in the car for ages, at least an hour as they closed up the crime scene only really talking to us once.
We all refused to say a word except for Mr 4 who tried to lie his way out of things but just ended up looking stupid.
All the stuff was sitting in the car with us and we ridiculously tried to cover it all up with jackets.lol
We were basically right outside the joint we just did over, armed up with the drugs and stuff in the car.
The pigs lead by Detective Shakeshaft brought down witness‟s to id us in the car while we waited to be arrested.
Around 11pm we were arrested, cuffed and thrown in a paddy wagon then transported to the Civic watch house via Woden.
Interviews were brief for all as nothing was said except again for Mr 4 who tried to lie and looked even more guilty and stupid after his efforts.
The Police refused our bail and we were placed in the holding cells over night.
Me and Mr 2 in one cell and Mr 3 and 4 in another.
I was glad me and 2 had smoked up before leaving cause now we were tired and drifted off to sleep leaving 3 and 4 up all night to do the stressing.
The following morning we were taken to court and our solicitors got us bail.
We spent the day reflecting and filling in our mates on what went down.
The local tv news and papers had us plastered all over the place with the headline
“Hollywood style home invasion” which made business a bit difficult.
Luckily I had a partner doing the leg work for me so I didn‟t have to handle any product and things went almost to what they had been before, I even picked up quite a number of new clients that suddenly couldn‟t score at “The crest”.
A short time later we appeared at the ACT magistrates court for several committal hearings and auidier (this is mis spelled) hearings.
Local news wouldn‟t leave us alone and even put some silly highlighted footage of me walking in slow motion and throwing up a finger on TV as one of the updates they ran.
The committal hearings finally drew to a close and what was and wasn‟t admissible in court was decided.
I chose Mr Tim Sharman and Barrister Craig Everson to represent me in the trial we were about to enter into.
Mr 2 and Mr 3 also secured class representation but Mr 4 went with legal aid, a move that I feel hurt our whole defence, like playing sport a man down.
Due to a back logged supreme court and efforts to slow down the process it took quite some time before we eventually faced a trial, I think the first was in late 2001.
During this waiting/fighting period I lost a close friend and the world lost a great man in Mr 2.
I don‟t feel right discussing the circumstances of his death, here online especially in relation to this topic but a soldier fell by the wayside and will never be forgotten.
The three of us that remained attempted to run separate trials as the witness‟s had stated that they had there heads down during the event and couldn‟t say how many men came in so we felt it was a bit unfair to try three as “the group” when the alleged victims couldn‟t even state how many were in the said group.
Justice Grey of the ACT Supreme court denied us separate trials and so the first trial began before a jury.
As the first trial began it became bogged down in argument and was aborted, buying us another six months or more of freedom.
We returned again in early 2002 and nearly got through the second trial but Mr 4‟s budget barrister made statements to the effect that we were drug barons and this was a turf war.
Remember this guy was supposed to be on our side!
The rest of our defence team made it possible for the trial to be aborted on the grounds that Mr 4‟s Barrister had made unauthorized statements to the court.
We left the Supreme Court on for another period of around six months before returning for what would be our final trial.
By this stage the whole thing had become a huge burden that we all had to juggle on top of our already dodging day to day lives.
It had been three years!
My Barrister offered me the opportunity to blame the others and possibly escape punishment but I refused.
Not one of us took the stand, as mates do we all remained 100% silent through the trial.
We selected a jury and the trial began.
It lasted for five full days Monday to Friday.
The alleged victims were put up in a motel under police guard at the expense of taxpayers.
Yes you payed for drug dealers to stay in a beautiful hotel while government prosecutors tried to burn us for robbing them of drugs and ruining there drug business.
Tanswell and co had also been charged that night with possession and supply of drugs the night of the event but funnily enough Tanswell was not charged with claiming the dole and having the proceeds of crime in his bank account.
Of course Detective Shakeshaft and co thought that helping Tanswell and co fight for justice was really important and offered Tanswell and co leniency in exchange for them going crown witness against us.
Hundreds of thousands of tax payers dollars were spent on this case followed by three of the alleged victims receiving criminal compensation of around $10,000 each which you also paid for!
The trial was amazing.
Even though we were caught outside the joint with the drugs and weapons in the car it was hard to tell what had really happened.
I mean we had the alleged victims on the stand admitting to dope dealing, being high as a kite when it happened, the whole deal.
One of the highlights for me was watching the police officers stumble and stutter to our defence team in an effort to seem professional.
They couldn‟t remember who arrested who, what exactly was found or where anything was found and looked down right incompetent.
Had the ridiculous “Joint criminal enterprise” law not just come in they never would have convicted us for this crime.
The alleged victims couldn‟t identify anyone clearly or even say how many people had been there, Tanswell gave up his dealer without even being requested too and the police looked like they were either corrupt or just plain hopeless.
Basically that new law got them a conviction based on no work on their part!
I actually call it the old “When in doubt bust everyone” law or the “Bust 10 people one is bound to be a crim” law.
So the trial went on, to be honest the only thing that kept me sane was my mates, my family and fine hydro skunk.
Though the skunk nearly got me in trouble a couple of times, one day we broke for lunch and I went for a feed and a joint but lost track of time only to have a phone call from my lawyer because I was late coming back!
They nearly locked me up for it too!
Our defence team fought hard and did pretty well considering they had to prove our innocence without any of us getting on the stand.
I recall the prosecutors name, it was Standish he was an ex copper so that says a lot.
The maximum charge for armed robbery is 25 years and all though we would never get that much time the prosecutor wanted us to do as much of it as possible.
After closing statements on the Friday afternoon our team told us it was looking about fifty fifty on a conviction.
Luckily for us the corrective services staff were about to knock off and didn‟t want to wait for a jury deliberation on a Friday night as a big case can take ages.
So we had a weekend to contemplate what the future would hold.
I spent mine getting drunk and high while committing adulterous acts.
I also wrote down everything my new runner would need to know should I not come home and I gave it to my girl of the time in case I did get locked up.
On Monday morning November the 24th 2002 Me and my two mates returned to the Supreme court to find out our fate.
It took the whole day for the jury to come to an agreement, I remember I had run out of smokes and made a dash into civic to get some.
As I jogged back I thought maybe I should keep jogging and not come back and I lit up a smoke.
It would be the only smoke I would ever have out of that pack.
As I ran back inside the court the jury was walking in to give their verdict.
I knew it was bad straight away because one of the chicks on the jury was balling uncontrollably, and why would she be so upset to not send someone to the nick.
We all stood in the court room as the jury read out a verdict of guilty for both assaults and the armed robbery charge.
And so we were taken into custody.
Justice Gray promised us that when we returned the next day to make a date to be sentenced he would allow us bail again to sort out our affairs before the gaol time.
A common courtesy I thought.
We were taken to the Belconnen remand centre and processed.
It was already late in the evening by the time we were put in E block I think it was called.
My cell was a foam mattress on a concrete slab but I had to put the mattress on the floor in the middle of the room because the walls were absolutely covered in chag and spit.
I will go into more detail about my time inside in other stories I blog and on my album “raw stories”.
I spent most of the night reading the only book I could get my hands on, something about Buddhism and the Dali lama.
I didn‟t sleep, I was getting out in the morn so I was thinking about what I had to organize before we came back in and I wondered how long I would be in for.
The next morning we showered and were transported back to court.
Once we returned I discovered Justice Gray was not a man of his word at all when his promise of a few weeks to organize our affairs turned out to be a lie.
We were told to return on December 20th about a month later, taken back into custody and sent back to the Belconnen remand centre.
I remember sitting in the cells below the court, there was about 20 or more dudes in there all complaining and I was thinking damn how am I going to get myself out of this one.
During the month before heading back to court I basically clung to blind optimism, I refused to give the getting on/scoring cash to my runner on the outside and I continued setting up deals for him using my girl as go between along with the gaol phones and the visits I had.
Both these people fucked me over in the end, a wounded animal is easy to harm.
I told all that visited me I would be out on the 20th and don‟t write to me Im only here a month.
3 and 4 weren‟t as optimistic, 3 thought after a few months he could fight his way out and 4 thought it was over for many years.
While waiting for the sentencing date I met with my legal guys and was told the only way to stay out of gaol was to find another way for the courts to punish me.
We tried community service, home detention and weekend lock up but they didn‟t want to hear that they wanted full time.
Our next move was to approach DODA a group that take inmates that do drugs and puts them in to a rehab or something for six months then lets them free.
As I had been smoking weed since I was young and often indulged in recreational drugs as well this seemed like a reasonable ask.
A DODA official even made a trip to the remand centre to let me know I would be out soon.
We also enlisted medical officials to strengthen our position.
I thought I had it sussed.
Mr 4 also made an effort to manoeuvre out of prison time, using a psychologist he told the courts he had a mental deficiency.
His strategy really had me worried cause I was thinking if that backfires he ends up in a mental patient gaol, stuff that!
Mr 3 was staunch to the end, his only extra manoeuvre was to tell the courts that the people we had robbed were drug dealers and that they deserved it, hence the fact he received a slightly longer non-parole period then the others.
So on December 20th we returned to court and put our new plans for punishment forward to Justice Gray.
Mr 4 and my self were told to again come back to court at a later date for sentencing, this time on February 24th 2003.
It was roughly a two month adjournment.
And so I spent my first of 3 Xmas‟s inside.
Mr 3 wasn‟t tired of the fight yet.
He didn‟t try a new attempt for freedom or a different angle and instead got sentenced that day so he could lodge an appeal against the whole conviction.
He received 5 years with a non parole period of 3 years.
In the holding cells Mr 3 and Mr 4 argued over money Mr 4 owed and then I had a chat with 3, it would be our last proper chat for a while.
I have a lot of respect for Mr 3, I consider him a good mate.
We are banned from contacting each other until November 2007 and I will be giving him a ring then no doubt.
The three of us returned to remanded custody, now at Symonston remand centre.
We arrived late and headed to our cells, the next morning Mr 3 left for the NSW
prison system.
On the 22rd of February my family visited me and Mr 4 at the remand centre and with my usual optimism told them I would win the following day, mainly to put them at ease knowing how much stress I had caused them.
The next day it felt good to put on my suite and I felt as though I really could win and be transferred to DODA which would allow me a day with family before heading to wherever that place was.
We walked in to court that morning and thankfully former 60 minutes reporter Geoff Carlton I think it was had some defamation case going so the tv cameras stayed away and focused on that.
We entered the court room in cuffs as usual but with hope of maybe taking them off at last.
We tendered all our stuff to justice Gray things like references, business paperwork, doctor‟s notes and of course the DODA stuff.
We brought up professionals to state why we should not be locked up and they spoke on the stand.
Gray adjourned till the following day and after another family visit we were back in court.
Unfortunately it was my sisters 21st birthday and I would have preferred to give her a better gift.
Mr 4 was told to stand first and he did so, Justice Gray read the sentence of 5 years with a non parole period of 2 ½ years.
Poor Mr 4‟s eyes welled up with tears but he held his nerve.
I was told to stand next and did so, Justice Gay read out the sentence of 5 years with a non parole period of 2 ½ as I of course had expected after Mr 4‟s sentence seconds earlier.
I turne