Two jurors have been dropped from a multimillion-dollar tax fraud trial involving Sydney construction boss George Alex and five others accused of pocketing more than $13 million in unpaid taxes.
According to The Australian, Juror G was dismissed after police searched his Sydney home mid-trial for a different alleged crime and officers discovered he had been conducting prohibited internet searches related to the fraud trial.
Following interviews of the remaining jurors by police, another juror – known as Juror A – was found to have been compromised after being in contact with Juror G.
NSW Supreme Court judge Desmond Fagan told the court on Thursday that while there was “no finding of misconduct of Juror A… the communications of those two were somewhat close and repeated.” As a result, the judge discharged him from his role on the jury.
Judge Fagan stopped short of aborting the six month trial. He apologised for being “heavy-handed” about the matter, but said if further jurors are compromised the case would “run the risk of being aborted and run again later, at a cost I leave to your imaginations.”
The trial, which began in February, relates to Mr Alex, his son Arthur Alex, Mark Ronald Bryers, Gordon McAndrew, Lindsay John Kirschberg, and Pasquale Loccisano.
All pleaded not guilty to conspiring to cause a loss to the Australian Taxation Office, and dealing with the proceeds of crime totalling $1 million or more from 2018 to 2020 in Sydney and the Gold Coast.
Source: The Australian
