The Dodger Lodges In Style But Has Friends In Low Places

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday May 27, 1999

By GREG BEARUP

The lawn and the trees are meticulously clipped to an even length, the backyard pool is a sparkling blue and even the hose is neatly rolled onto a reel. It is unreeled at least once a week, neighbours say, when Roger Rogerson carefully soaps down his white Daimler.

For many people, a stint in jail - even a short one - can mean financial ruin, but the man they call The Dodger seems to have landed on his feet since walking through the front gates of Berrima Jail on December 15, 1995, after a three-year stay.

Rogerson and his long-term girlfriend, Anne Melocco, a secretary, bought their dream house at Padstow Heights for $346,000 last year.

It is a good-sized brick house with a swimming pool on one side and the Georges River National Park on the other.

Ms Melocco bought a unit, not long after Rogerson was released, at nearby Georges Hall for $180,000, and Rogerson owns a weekender at Long Jetty.

What is now emerging, through the inquiries by the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the NSW Police Integrity Commission, is that Rogerson has surrounded himself with friends who have been able to smooth his transition back into society.

He is the director of two companies, a building business called Re-Con Holdings and a scaffolding firm, Scafco Pty Ltd. His business card lists him as working for a third company, a demolition, earthmoving and plant-hire outfit, Aramco.

One man who has been working with Rogerson on and off since both of them left Berrima Jail is Arthur Loveday, a feared senior figure in the Bandidos motorcycle gang who has served time for kidnapping, rape and armed robbery, and has escaped from jail twice.

The friendship with Loveday gives Rogerson the muscle and the fear he needs to operate his alleged standover activities, police believe.

Early in 1997, police intelligence suggested that Rogerson was heavily involved in brokering a deal with crime figures in Kings Cross for an orderly carve-up of the drugs trade following the removal of the dominant player, Bill Bayeh.

More recently, Rogerson has been linked to Kostas Kontorinakis, the owner of the Eros Cinema in Goulburn Street, Sydney.

It was suggested to him at the Police Integrity Commission last month that Mr Kontorinakis had been paying him $500 a week protection money.

Rogerson denied this and said the weekly $500 was simply a loan repayment.

Rogerson has also gathered around him a ring of dubious ex-NSW Police such as Ray "Chopper" Johnson, a large, fit-looking man who was pensioned off from the Police Service in 1987. Johnson says now that his only income is his pension.

Several years ago he was charged with a number of serious offences relating to dealing amphetamines.

He was acquitted by a jury, but the judge last year referred a number of matters about other police from that case to the Police Integrity Commission.

Another of Rogerson's pals is Laurence Burgess, a former Bankstown detective who, it was alleged at the PIC this week, told Johnson to pass on information that the ICAC was on Rogerson's trail.

Another of Rogerson's new friends is Boris Link (aka Boris Katic).

In January this year, Rogerson and Link drove to Peats Ridge to look at property, allegedly for the purposes of growing an indoor cannabis crop in a large shed on the land.

Indoor cannabis production is something of a specialty for Link, a former NSW Deputy Sheriff, who in 1994 was jailed for his part in a massive drug operation where large amounts of cannabis were cultivated in rented houses across Sydney.

The ICAC and the PIC are also in the midst of delving into how Rogerson allegedly secured contracts from a corrupt employee at Liverpool Council.

Anne Melocco this week explained some of the business practices of Rogerson Inc at the PIC hearings.

Counsel assisting: "Did anybody from the council, a council employee, ever give you the tender prices of competitors?"

Ms Melocco: "Yes . . . well, in private enterprise it's a fairly common thing. We were putting in prices and it's always natural to ask what the others are quoting, so I did."

Now in small business, as in the police service, Rogerson is ever-determined to seize that unexplained competitive edge.

New South Wales: former detective gives evidence at Police Integrity Commission

Link Thursday, 21 April 1999

MARK COLVIN:  No name is more associated in the public mind with New South Wales police corruption than the former detective, Roger Rogerson. Now, there are allegations that 15 years after leaving the force, the man who used to be friends with some of Sydney's most notorious criminals is still involved in a protection racket. Roger Rogerson vehemently denied the allegations at the Police Integrity Commission today. He branded the commission a star chamber and unleashed his fury on the media.

Rafael Epstein reports – and I should say that some people may find some of the language used disturbing.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN:  The former detective was clearly unhappy to be back before any inquiry. He told the security guard to, 'Get a fucking real job and don't fucking touch me.' As the guard ran a metal detector over him, Roger Rogerson said the guard would, 'be done for'. Later he personally insulted two journalists for their coverage of corrupt cops. One of his friends shouldered aside a TV cameraman and Mr Rogerson shouted out that the commission itself was 'bullshit' and a 'fucking joke'. The invective even flowed from the witness box when he described the Police Integrity Commission as a star chamber and a kangaroo court. On the street, before the cameras, he was more diplomatic when he spoke to ABC reporter, Lindy Kerrin(?).

ROGER ROGERSON:  Oh, they just love using my name. They think, you know, you just make all this stuff up.

LINDY KERRIN: But what can they get out of that?

ROGER ROGERSON:  They just hate me. They just hate me. I am a thorn in their side because, you know, I can stand up to them. I am not frightened of them. I am not frightened of the police because they don't do anything anyhow.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN:  No police identity is more associated, in the public mind, with corruption then Roger Rogerson. Once awarded the force's highest service medal, he was present at the shooting deaths of four criminals by police and was an associate of Arthur 'Neddy' Smith. He also knew and frequently met with the late Sydney crime boss, Lennie McPherson and with the now missing and believed killed hit-man, Christopher Dale Flannery. He was charged and acquitted with conspiracy to murder another detective and he was thrown out of the force in disgrace for associating with known criminals.

The current commission, the permanent creation of the Royal Commission into Police Corruption, has ended many police careers. But if its sensational allegations were proved true, it would mean Roger Rogerson is still involved in criminal activities and potentially with corrupt cops, less than six months ago – more than 15 years since he was last on active duty.

The central allegation is that Roger Rogerson was being paid by another one-time associate of Lennie McPherson's, to provide protection for a strip club and alleged brothel business in Central Sydney. The commission today, played a video tape of Mr Rogerson receiving money from a man called Alan Chrara the then manager of the city strip club. While Roger Rogerson said the money was pay-back for a $20,000 personal loan to a long-time friend, he couldn't remember the rate of interest or when the loan was finally paid off, something counsel assisting the commission called 'not very prudent business practice'. Counsel asked Mr Rogerson if he was in fact being paid protection money. He replied, 'How could I protect him? What senior police officer would accept money from Roger Rogerson?'

MARK COLVIN:  Rafael Epstein reporting.