Townsville BulletinGreat cattle scam probe JOHN ANDERSENAugust...

Townsville Bulletin




Great cattle scam probe

JOHN ANDERSEN

August 13th, 2009

STOCK Squad police have been asked to investigate the alleged disappearance of cattle owned by investors in failed investment fund Great Southern Plantations.

Police have confirmed that they are likely to soon investigate the alleged disappearance of cattle from Crystalbrook Station in the Chillagoe area of Far North Queensland.

Crystalbrook was leased by Great Southern Plantations before the Managed Investment Fund imploded in spectacular fashion in May with debts of just under $1 billion. GSP's cattle investment arm was overseen by David McLeod who was assisted in part by his rags to riches brother-in-law, Sterling Buntine.

The Townsville Bulletin has been advised that Stock Squad police and a stock inspector from the Charters Towers Department of Primary Industries will be visiting a property in the Charters Towers area today in connection to the intended removal of former GSP cattle from that property.

It is understood that the stock inspector will make a decision on whether the young weaner cattle now owned by GSP receivers McGrath Nicol are fit enough to be transported.

The Townsville Bulletin understands that the Stock Squad expects a Charters Towers district landholder to today allege that a large number of cows leased by him to GSP have vanished and that they could be in the Northern Territory.

A Stock Squad spokesman said police would be examining contracts between the landholder and GSP to determine if any laws had been broken.

These allegations and investigations follow hard on the heels of claims raised by Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, who is overseeing an inquiry into the GSP collapse. Senator Heffernan has already said he fears the receivers may have already sold the (cattle) assets.

Melbourne financial planner Janette Townshend set up a co-operative representing investors in GSP's cattle enterprise when it became apparent that the managed investment scheme was going pear-shaped.

She told the Townsville Bulletin that some of her clients had invested millions of dollars in GSP's cattle business and that some of them owned 15,000 or more cattle. She said many investors borrowed money to invest and were paying off loans.

She now believes those cattle are missing and could have been stolen, but does not know who may have taken them.

Ms Townshend applauded the Queensland Police Stock Squad for starting to take an active interest in what she says is an 'extraordinary' case.

She said the first thing she would ask police to do is to block the sale of cattle by the receivers until ownership is confirmed.

''I want the police to look at where the cattle have gone. I don't think the receivers should be able to sell the cattle until we know if they have been stolen,'' she said.

''The thing is our property is missing and we want it back.''

Ms Townshend said the GSP collapse could be camouflaging allegedly the biggest theft of cattle so far unknown ever seen in Australia and that it should be thoroughly investigated.


She said cattle owned by GSP investors had been 'transported all around the country' and no one knew where they went or what happened to them.

Ms Townshend said she had tried to stop a ship-load of cattle leaving the Darwin port, but had been unsuccessful.

She said when she first went to the police with her allegations, an officer told her the 'dogs had been barking for years'.







Latest Comments:
So the cattle duffing trade continues, greedy graziers will they stop at nothing?

Posted by: Shaun Newman of Townsville N.Q. 9:47am today