Cops stole cars
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — A storm has erupted here over revelations that police assisted in stealing cars, disposed of them and then even bought some of them for their own use at auction, during the controversial undercover Operation Trident.
The whole affair will now be the subject of an independent inquiry by a retired judge or senior lawyer, following revelations that the Criminal Justice Commission had itself given approval for the operation.
Trident lasted for seven months and involved unlawful, direct police participation in stealing and disposing of nearly 70 cars. One of the alleged aims was to identify people prepared to steal cars or buy stolen cars or parts.
After the operation ended in a blaze of favourable publicity in April 1990, police brought 902 charges against 91 people, many of whose convictions may now be unsafe because of the illegality with which evidence was obtained.
The scheme was exposed by the Brisbane Courier-Mail after the Court of Criminal Appeal handed down judgments scathing in their criticism of government and police involvement in an operation of "unrestrained illegality".
Angry car owners have demanded compensation, after having lost considerable amounts through insufficient insurance pay-outs on cars stolen, stripped and off-loaded by police, and having had lengthy court battles to win payment on many occasions.
"I am totally furious about this whole operation — I feel cheated and betrayed", said one owner of a stolen car, Coralie Martin. "I found out later that one of the police even helped strip my car. That really hurts."
The fallout from this disaster for the Queensland police looks like being immense, even reversing the small amount of improvement in its image the force has achieved since Fitzgerald ended.