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For more than 40 years, solicitor Martin Waterhouse has been waging a relentless, and so far unsuccessful, battle against his famous bookmaking relatives, the judiciary, politicians, the police commissioner and the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
After his string of failed court cases against the corruption watchdog over its refusal to investigate his complaints, the ICAC is moving to bankrupt the 76-year-old over costs orders totalling $120,183.39.
Martin WaterhouseCredit: Peter Rae
Waterhouse is fighting the petition to bankrupt him, claiming court costs from his five failed actions against the anti-corruption commission “are not real and genuine debts at all” because they were based on “false and fraudulent judgements gained in their favour as the result of sham trials involving collusive dishonesty”.
“Unlawful, perverse and foul means” have been used to cover up a “horrendous scandal”, he says in a court filing opposing the creditor’s petition.
When bookmaker Charles Otto Hercules Waterhouse died in 1954, aged 39, his son Martin was just five years old.
In 1986, the Herald reported on the family feud over the handling of Charles’ estate. Martin and his mother Patricia Hagan alleged that they had been financially disadvantaged by Charles’ brothers, bookmakers Bill and Jack Waterhouse, who were alleged to have enriched themselves at the expense of Martin’s family.
The bitter feud, once described by a judge as “a dark jungle full of surprises and mysteries”, raged through the courts from 1989 through to 1991. At stake was a $60 million business empire which included farms, hotels, racehorses and an interest in the US cosmetics giant Faberge.
Justice John Kearney held that bookmakers Bill and Jack Waterhouse had been fraudulent in their dealings with some properties and that they had withheld part of their brother’s estate from his heirs. However, he rejected many other allegations made against the brothers.
The matter ultimately settled, but Waterhouse was unhappy with the outcome and demanded an investigation into “patent perversions of justice” he alleged had been committed by the judge.
In 1999, Waterhouse lodged a 450-page complaint with the ICAC, demanding a public inquiry into what a court later heard was “the perversion of justice by the former premier of NSW and Labor Party icon, Neville Wran, and his bookmaker friend, Bill Waterhouse, and Robbie and Louise Waterhouse [Bill’s children].”
Waterhouse then complained to the NSW Crime Commission about ICAC’s failure to investigate. When the crime commission also declined to investigate, Waterhouse alleged “sinister conduct and motives” on that agency’s behalf.
Bill Waterhouse working at Rosehill Racecourse in 2009, aged 87.Credit: Janie Barrett
Waterhouse also complained to the commissioner of police in 2007. When the commissioner declined to act, he complained to the Police Integrity Commission, alleging misconduct by the police commissioner.
In 2012, when he reagitated his demand that ICAC investigate his complaint, his “brief” of evidence had doubled to 900 pages. In December 2012, he wrote to ICAC alleging that “all of the public officials and public institutions who are charged with a duty to do something about it [his allegations], all corruptly refused their duty”.
When ICAC again declined to investigate, Waterhouse sued in the NSW Supreme Court, alleging that the commission’s failure to investigate “demonstrated complicity in the original alleged corrupt conduct”.
Summarising Waterhouse’s 2012 complaint, Justice Peter Garling said it concerned “a former politician [Wran] who had not been in office for over 20 years, a judge [Kearney] who had retired from the Supreme Court and had died before the 2012 complaint was lodged, and the outcome of litigation which had concluded many years before – ultimately by a settlement, being an agreement between the parties which none of the parties had sought to have set aside”.
In dismissing Waterhouse’s claim in 2015, Garling said, “these facts alone” would be sufficient justification for ICAC to decline an investigation. He ordered Waterhouse to pay the commission’s legal costs.
Further appeals followed in which Waterhouse alleged “that all members of the Supreme Court are tainted and unable properly to hear his cases”. He also made allegations that the transcript of a hearing had been tampered with.
This prompted an appeal court judge to state that Waterhouse’s allegations were “scurrilous” and not supported by evidence.
“That they come from a person admitted and eligible to practise as a solicitor of the court is disturbing,” said Justice John Basten.
Over the years, Waterhouse has attempted to reagitate his grievances before the High Court. In August 2025, his latest attempt to be heard was unsuccessful. On this occasion, Waterhouse’s application was rejected due to his “various vague, scandalous and unsubstantiated allegations of ‘fraud, illegality and bad faith’ levied against the judicial officers of this court”.
The previous year, Justice Jayne Jagot had dismissed his application, saying: “Apart from the applicant’s sweeping allegations of corruption and conspiracies, and the applicant’s manifest long-held sense of profound grievance”, Waterhouse’s application is “both frivolous and vexatious and, accordingly, an abuse of process”.
In June 2025, the ICAC filed a petition to bankrupt Waterhouse over his failure to pay the commission’s costs for his futile court actions.
However, when the bankruptcy petition was heard before a Federal Court registrar on Tuesday, Waterhouse again alleged there was “massive corruption within the administration of justice” and that the chief justice should make special arrangements to hear the matter. “He’s the only one who can make that decision,” said Waterhouse.
“It’s a she,” registrar Sydney Birchall said, referring to Chief Justice Debra Mortimer.
The matter will return to court next month.
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