Karen Leanne Mercer: Trusted Murdoch surgeon's staffer who stole $366,000 handed three years, six months jail
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Karen Leanne Mercer: Trusted Murdoch surgeon's staffer who stole $366,000 handed three years, six months jail
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From the outside, this shop looks like any typical convenience store. On closer inspection, it has little stock of any kind nor advertising of products posted in the windows. Recently, police charged two people with selling tobacco without a licence from this Katanning shop in Western Australia's Great Southern region. It is a serious concern for WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch, who is dealing with similar stores popping up across the state, and not just because they are potentially selling illegal tobacco. "There are convenience stores that are funded by and set up by organised crime on the east coast of Australia, right here in WA," he told ABC Radio Perth. Illegal tobacco sales have been in the spotlight in recent weeks, with two tobacco shops targeted in what police believe were firebomb attacks in Perth. "Organised crime have seen an opportunity where they're seeing people sell illicit tobacco through convenience stores or other means and they want the biggest cut of that pie," Commissioner Blanch said. "The best way to get the biggest cut is to take out their competitors and that's exactly what we're seeing." WA Police Minister Reece Whitby said incidents like the arson attacks presented an unacceptable risk to the community. "I'm aware WA Police are working with Australian Federal Police and other interstate police forces to get to the 'Mr Bigs' of this, to get at the outlaw gangs that are behind this," he said. "I'm aware there are, if you like, FIFO [fly-in fly-out] gangsters coming to Perth, shooting up the place, dropping fire bombs outside smoke shops. That is unacceptable." In WA, the sale of tobacco products is regulated under the Tobacco Products Control Act 2006, with the Department of Health responsible for compliance and carrying out inspections. Commissioner Blanch said the penalties that could be imposed were too low. "Remembering most of that law was drafted to stop young people from buying smokes in shops," he said. "The advent of organised crime infiltrating this market and doing standover tactics and fire bombings and shooting wasn't considered, so the penalties have to be far more significant." Currently in WA, the maximum penalty for an individual selling illicit tobacco for a first offence is a $10,000 fine and $40,000 for a body corporate. In Queensland, those prosecuted for similar offending could receive a fine of up to $322,600 or two years' imprisonment. For a corporation, the fine can be up to $1.6 million. Commissioner Blanch wants WA to follow the lead of South Australia and allow authorities to issue interim closure orders. "I think what we're seeing is a national problem and other states are introducing these laws, South Australia already have and the east coast are drafting their bills," he said. "Organised crime will look for an area of displacement where it is easier for them to operate and obviously no West Australian wants organised crime to operate in our state if the laws aren't equivalent to what's happening in other states." Mr Whitby said potential changes to the legislation were being considered. "I'm aware of other interstate legislation. I'd like to look at all of that legislation and make sure we can come up with the best and the toughest," he said. "But in the meantime, you can be assured police are taking action." Since the start of 2024, the Department of Health has received 304 complaints relating to 119 premises and inspected more than 1,600 tobacconists. Over that period, more than 190,000 vapes, 460,000 cigarettes, and more than 85 kilograms of loose tobacco have been seized, and infringements totalling about $60,000 have been issued for tobacco-related non-compliance. A bag of illegal tobacco can be purchased for about half the cost of going through a legal tobacconist. Australian Council of Smoking and Health chief executive Laura Hunter said access to cheap illegal tobacco was too easy. "Illicit cigarettes sold without health warnings or graphic packaging undermined decades of Australia's progress in tobacco control," she said. "Price has been one of our most effective deterrents and the illicit trade wipes that out by making cigarettes cheaper and easier to get, and it's a serious and growing concern in WA."
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