Detective Malcolm Thomas and the art of falsifying police reports

As mentioned in the previous post Detective Stanley Matthew Willcox had made the mistake of telephoning the brothers on wednesday the 2nd November 1988 at Albert Park, the cat was out of the bag and Willcox was aware that the brothers had been collecting evidence of his corruption. Willcox and Thomas it seems did not believe that the tapes existed. Either that or they were extremely careless! (listen to the first conversation with Lee and another creditor Thomas had contacted first, an unsolicited call, this was the modus operandi Thomas had used to incite creditors)

Thomas also had little comprehension of just how extensive the brothers investigations had been, making hundreds of calls and taping almost everyone. They had also covertly taped their interviews with Detectives Thomas and Neilson.

Following Willcox’s call of the 2nd November the brothers then telephoned the Canterbury District Commander Mr Ron Melrose and made a formal complaint against Willcox’s and Alexander Lee. Wiseman undertook to have the head of Christchurch CIB, Detective chief Inspector Neville Stocks, investigate Willcox’s behaviour the following morning, Thursday the 3rd November, Stocks obviously has Willcox spoken too the afternoon of the 3rd. (listen to the taped conversation with D/C Melrose)

The following day the morning of Friday the 4th Detective Matt Willcox, no doubt after having been interviewed by his commanding officer,  made a telephone call to his corrupt mate Malcolm Thomas in Gisborne. This we know not because we are gifted clairvoyants but because again one of Malcolm Thomas’s own police reports details the fact.

Willcox has called obviously to warn Thomas about the internal investigation and the brothers call to Alex Lee.

Thomas however seems a little confused as to what had actually taken place. From this confusion it ‘s apparent that both Willcox and Thomas are lying yet again.

Also obvious in his report is the fact that Alexander Lee had, apparently, not told Willcox the whole story. In his rush to leave the country Lee had neglected to tell Willcox about Jonathan Parkers additional calls; the ones he had made to Keith Mitchellmore – Hi-Lites in house accountant.

Lee obviously didn’t care, looking after number one was all that mattered, he just wanted out; after all Alex would be winging his way to the United Kingdom for good that very weekend. (Listen to the Mitchellmore conversation)

Thomas, in his report, writes Willcox informs: that he had received a call from one of the brothers masquerading as Jonathan Parker. This of course never occured, the brothers knew Willcox would have recognized their voices, there was after all a long association that Thomas’s intended audience had no knowledge of; it was Willcox who had telephoned the brother, the game was up Lee had told him that much; evidenced in the tape.

Willcox according to Thomas further states that he had telephoned Lee first to warn him and that Lee had claimed that he had already received a (one) call from Jonathan Parker. Again untrue, it was Lee who had telephoned Willcox. Lee had also actually received far more than one call from Jonathan Parker a fact that Willcox was not aware of; again evidenced by the tapes.

Willcox goes on to advise Detective Thomas that Lee had said the brothers had threatened to have him disbarred because he had said defamatory things about them; also untrue. Defamation was the least of Lee’s problems; Willcox, however, is clearly oblivious to what Lee had actually admitted and the  jeopardy he had created for himself and his co-conspirators .

The real threat to solicitor Alexander Lee being disbarred?  The brothers had evidenced that Lee had intentionally mislead the aforementioned High Court Judge, was part of a corrupt police conspiracy and was about to make, yet again, another false statement at the behest of Detectives Matt Willcox and Malcolm Thomas; Again all evidenced by the tape recorded conversations. (listen to the second conversation with Lee and Willcox’s call to the brothers after Lee had bailed on him)

Thomas obviously not believing the brothers had taped the calls is clearly trying to rewrite history. Again creating falsified contemporaneous documents as an insurance policy for his co-conspirators and himself and to facilitate the change in bail conditions he was about to apply for.

Thomas then, with the assistance of Willcox, allege’s in court that the brothers had threatened creditors, successfully having the mens bail conditions altered; the draconian result designed to stop the brothers talking to creditors and those others involved, in their efforts to collect further evidence, on fear of arrest and or incarceration. Thomas was determined to keep the brothers away from people that had assisted him in his plans. This preparedness would later be displayed with the false arrest and overnight incarceration of one brothers on the 19th April 1989. Whilst attempting to investigate the corrupt solicitor Gorden Webb

The fact that Lee had not told Willcox of Mitchellmore’s disclosures and the brothers evidence is also telling. Lee obviously feared that these same bent cops would turn on him. remember Lee had attempted to use a false instrument for pecuniary gain. Which we suspect Lee, being a solicitor was aware of; bent cops, normally psychopaths, will go to extraordinary lengths to protect themselves if necessary.

After all, who would believe that the cops had supplied Lee with the falsified document, the brothers were the only ones with evidence of that; the tapes. Lee was young and knew the cops had the upper hand in the creditability stakes.

Whilst it was true that Malcolm Thomas had supplied the falsified contract, Lee was also well aware that Thomas had not been the one responsible for the next step, deliberately misleading a High Court Judge; conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

We would say that was sufficient reason for Lee to just get the hell out before it all turned very nasty.

Thomas, Willcox,  in fact, not even the police command had any idea that the call to District Commander Melrose had been taped and dated.

Thomas then goes on to detail yet another call this time from Brian Coombe, Farrow finances agent and reciever of Lew Holdings. According to Thomas Coombe had advised of a similar “set up”.  Thomas, however, does not note the time and date the conversation occurred(we believe that this is intentional); he again gets the plot very wrong. The whole document is signed off on the 7th November, three days after the Willcox’s call.

Brian Coombe had indeed been telephoned, but it was not at 5.00pm as Thomas claims Coombe had stated. The call was in fact made at aprox12.00pm midday the 6th November. Jonathan Parker was not going into Gladstone Park to repossess beds. Thomas or Coombe, we believe Thomas, had got that wrong as well.

Jonathan Parker had in fact told Coombe that he had found the beds whilst repossessing carpet at the restaurant. What Jonathan Parker had been attempting to obtain was evidence of Thomas’s involvement in the receivership of Lew Holdings Ltd. Brian Coombe provided confirmation of that and  evidence that  Coombe had also been in touch with Dr Margaret Guthrie of the health Department. The most important evidence the brothers were however after was Coombe’s admission that Farrow had placed Lew Holdings in receivership in breach of an agreement to advance more funds, or allow time to refinance with another institution; this also evidenced in the tapes.

The brothers were also trying to establish whether or not Coombe had been a party to the false allegations of assault that Thomas and McBreen had cooked up. We believe, however that Coombe had no part in setting the brothers up on those false allegations and the subsequent charges.

However, the passing comment by Jonathan Parker; “do you believe that it really happened” ,  referring to the trumped up assault charges Thomas and McBreen had laid is seized upon by Thomas who in his job sheet notes; “there were questions about the assault on McBreen” . For good reason, Thomas knew the charges were false, any mention of his handy work by the brothers always caused him to focus on what had been said in relation to his charges, he always liked to establish just how much other people might have been told.

The truth of what was discussed in the telephone calls  is very different to that which Detective Thomas alleges in his job sheet. All evidenced by the tape recordings. It probably went something like this: Thomas did get a call from Willcox on the 4th november, but it was Willcox advising Thomas that Lee had been scared off and was not going to co-operate in making the false statement they needed, further, that he himself was now being investigated by his superiors as a result of a complaint.

Thomas didn’t bother completing a report, why would he? Then on the morning of the 7th November Thomas gets a call from Brian Coombe, which was not surprising.  As is evidenced in the tape Coombe had been using Thomas’s corrupt services. During an otherwise routine conversation Coombe let slip that he had been called the day before by Jonathan Parker a repossession agent, Thomas immediately panicked.

Thomas knew all about Parker, remember Willcox was being investigated because Jonathan Parker had uncovered his corrupt association with Lee, the falsified contract that Thomas had provided and the attempt to lay yet another false charge of perjury. Thomas knew that he was responsible for a raft of false charges and unprecedented corruption!

The decision was easy, Thomas had to protect himself; so on the morning of the 7th November following Coombe’s call (and using the scant detail Coombe had given him) Thomas creates the false job sheet,  Thomas needs to explain his dealings with Coombe, dealing that had previously been denied, so he decides to falsely claim that Coombe had feared for his safety, responding to Coombe’s purported concerns with the cliché;

“I told him that if he feared for life and limb then he should contact the police”

If you are to believe Thomas’s account, Coombe advised him that he had suspected the caller was not bone fide. Given that Coombe, according to Thomas, held this suspicion, why did he continue with the caller, he managed to chat for quite a while (one hour in fact) during which time he supplied very sensitive information. If what Thomas had said is correct,which of course it wasn’t, Coombe’s performance was worthy of an Oscar; especially the scene where he can hardly contain his obvious glee in the misguided belief that he had just located a treasure trove chattels belonging to either Lew Holdings or RSL.

Thomas had again lied, once Coombe had mentioned Jonathan Parkers name Thomas took control of the conversation. Thomas’s focus and account of what Coombe had said is limited to recording detail that was related to his own criminal activities; which were already the subject of many formal complaints against him.

Unfortunately for Malcolm Thomas and the senior police officers that conspired to conceal his criminal activities the tapes actually did and still do exist. Quite aside from the other holes in Thomas’s report, holes that you could drive a truck through, the context, information and style of the conversation with Brian Coombe is not reflected in Thomas’s recollection, the document is a fake – we doubt that Coombe knew anything more than he shouldn’t be talking to Parker, but unfortunately for Thomas it was to late. (listen to the taped conversation with Coombe)