Bill Leak's view. Source: The Australian
AUSTRALIAN Federal Police have stepped up their probe into Peter Slipper's alleged misuse of travel entitlements and will interview potential witnesses, as the MP's decision to release 13 Cabcharge dockets to prove his innocence backfired.
Mr Slipper, who stepped aside as Speaker last weekend, has been accused by former staffer James Ashby of alleged misuse of parliamentary travel entitlements in relation to Cabcharge dockets, as well as alleged workplace sexual harassment.
In a bid to clear his name on the travel claims, Mr Slipper released copies this week of 13 Cabcharge vouchers released to him by the Finance Department - but his move has raised more questions than it answers.
Nine of the 13 manually processed Cabcharge vouchers that Mr Slipper released are in numerical order, with one omission, despite being filled out on three separate days in late January and February.
On one of the days, February 11, Mr Slipper travelled from Sydney airport to the city's suburbs for $85, then the suburbs to the airport for $90, and the suburbs to the suburbs for $95.
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In his Federal Court claim, Mr Ashby alleged that on three occasions in late January and early February, Mr Slipper had handed over three signed but otherwise blank Cabcharge dockets to a driver of a hire car.
When he released the Cabcharge documents, which largely corresponded with the dates named by Mr Ashby, Mr Slipper said: "These documents have all been completed by me and are clearly in my handwriting, as I said they were. The so-called criminal allegation is a complete fabrication, just as the other claims are not accurate."
Claims emerged yesterday that the Cabcharge dockets Mr Slipper said he filled out were completed by his driver, Antwan Kaikaty.
An AFP spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that police had received a referral to investigate allegations of fraud against Mr Slipper. "The AFP is currently evaluating information associated with this referral prior to the consideration of an investigation," the spokeswoman said. "As part of this evaluation process, AFP investigators are speaking to potential witnesses and gathering further information."
Elicia Till, administrator with GM Cabs in Sydney's west, where drivers can exchange Cabcharge dockets for cash, yesterday identified Mr Kaikaty's writing on nine dockets she had processed.
Reports last night said Mr Kaikaty had been convicted of forging Cabcharge dockets, theft and indecently assaulting a female passenger. News Limited papers said Mr Kaikaty received a suspended sentence and was placed on a good behaviour bond for the 2002 offences, which reportedly involved the unlawful swiping of the woman's credit card and the theft of a mobile phone and money.
Mr Kaikaty said this week that he had been driving Mr Slipper in Sydney for many years.
"I'm 99 per cent confident that this is Antwan's handwriting," Ms Till told The Weekend Australian, looking at the scanned copies of dockets that Mr Slipper released.
Mr Slipper last night rejected the concerns over the dockets, saying the hire cars he used did not have electronic machines and the sequential numbers were irrelevant. He rejected the claims it was not his handwriting.
"All the Cabcharge vouchers released by me yesterday were completed and signed by me personally as I have previously said," Mr Slipper said.
"My statement yesterday is correct. It is a nonsense to suggest otherwise. I know my own handwriting and signature."
The Weekend Australian visited Mr Kaikaty's home last night but he was unavailable. His son, David, did not dispute suggestions his father had at times completed Cabcharge dockets for his customers.
Mr Kaikaty's lawyer, Michael Bowe, said his client, who has been a driver for the Queensland MP on numerous occasions over the past 12 years, maintained he had done nothing wrong.
"My instructions from my client are that Mr Slipper filled in everything and it is his handwriting on the forms," he said.
"My client is a reasonably simple man who can't believe that he has been embroiled in all this."
In her role with GM Cabs, Ms Till gives taxi and hire-car drivers cash for Cabcharge dockets, less a small processing fee, and then redeems those dockets with their issuer. The process allows drivers to get paid quicker. Part of Ms Till's responsibility is to check the dockets for fraud, and to ensure all fields are filled out correctly.
Ms Till said nine of the 13 dockets Mr Slipper released had been exchanged by her company. On each, she identified her company's stamp, GM02 69, which she had placed there and which she said was Mr Kaikaty's account number. Several of the nine dockets were also stamped with an ABN registered to GM Cabs owner Nicholas Mikhael. Ms Till said that was because on occasions where the driver's own ABN was missing, a company ABN was sometimes used to allow the docket to be processed.
Ms Till also identified instances on five of the nine dockets processed by GM Cabs in which she had completed minor, missing details in her own handwriting. She said the signatures on several dockets "looked different", but could not tell who had written them.
The four other dockets were processed by other companies.
Ms Till said the nine dockets processed by her company were all for a hire car rather than a taxi. She said hire cars were not required to have electronic swipe machines fitted.
Asked about the similar amounts and non-specific destinations, such as "suburbs to suburbs", on several of Mr Slipper's dockets, Ms Till said hire cars were more often charged by the hour rather than by the trip, at a rate agreed between the passenger and the driver. Where a relationship existed, the driver would often record a series of trips in a diary, complete the dockets as a courtesy and ask the customer to sign several all at once.
She said the going hourly rate was typically about $90 - similar to the amounts Mr Slipper paid on nine of the 13 documented occasions.
Mr Mikhael, who gave permission for The Weekend Australian to access his records and interview Ms Till, said he had met Mr Kaikaty on a number of occasions. "Antwan comes in, we take his dockets and we give him money back," Mr Mikhael said.
"What's between Antwan and his customer isn't our business."
He denied his company had done anything wrong.
Ms Till said in six years working for GM Cabs, Mr Kaikaty had never had a docket returned for fraud or discrepancies, a sign he was acting honestly.
Mr Slipper last night denied any wrongdoing over the dockets.
He said he had used a limousine service on all occasions and the driver did not have the machine required to processes fares electronically.
"While it is true taxis use dockets when the electronic system fails, many hire car drivers, particularly small operators only use Cabcharge vouchers and do not have electronic facilities," he said.
The stood-aside Speaker dismissed questions over the sequential serial numbers, saying it was not relevant.
"With a Cabcharge voucher book, the vouchers must be taken out of the book at some time, run through the manual machine using the passenger's card, and then completed by the passenger then signed and handed over," he said. "What is relevant is the journey and when it took place, not the sequence of the serial numbers of the dockets."
He denied the fares were excessive as a hire car with a driver is "usually cheaper than Comcar (which) is often more expensive than by standard taxis".
