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Victoria’s corruption watchdog has charged a former councillor and a development consultant over their alleged part in a corruption scandal in the City of Casey in which councillors were said to have accepted more than $1 million in bribes.
The Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission has announced the charges more than two years after it completed its investigation into the local government corruption scandal in Melbourne’s south-east.
Charges have been laid against two people more than two years after IBAC completed its five-year investigation.Credit: Wayne Taylor
A former Casey councillor has been charged with one count of receiving secret commissions and two counts each of misconduct in public office and misuse of position.
A property development consultant has been charged with giving secret commissions.
It is understood former Casey mayor Sam Aziz and consultant John Woodman have been charged. Both are expected to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on September 25, IBAC said.
IBAC spent five years investigating alleged corruption involving property developers and councillors at the City of Casey. It held public hearings in 2019 and 2020 in which Woodman was accused of doling out more than $1.2 million in corrupt payments to councillors, including more than $500,000 to Aziz.
The payments, sometimes allegedly made by handing over bags of cash in brown paper bags at a Subway restaurant in outer suburban Skye, were given in exchange for an attempted favourable rezoning of land in Cranbourne West, the investigation heard.
The entire City of Casey council was sacked in February 2020. Administrators were appointed for four years before the election of a new council late last year.
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