Brothel 'good Deal' For Credit Firm
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday June 22, 1988
BRISBANE: A credit company financed a brothel because it was a good financial deal, the Fitzgerald Inquiry heard yesterday.
A Custom Credit employee, Mr Gerard Anthony Yip, told the inquiry he recommended that his company refinance a $140,000 mortgage on the brothel owned by Ann Marie Tilley and Hector Hapeta.
Mr Yip said he met Tilley and Hapeta, who told him their surname was Hall, with their bank manager, Alan Kenneth Dowrick, in a penthouse apartment in the Brisbane suburb of Kangaroo Point.
Mr Robert Mulholland, for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, asked Yip if his company had knowingly financed a criminal empire.
Mr Yip replied: "No, we were asked to finance a building."
Mr Yip then said he knew the building to be refinanced was used for prostitution.
Mr Mulholland: "Why did you not recommend against it (the loan)?" Mr Yip: "Well, the transaction was sound."
Mr Mulholland: " ... you were not the slightest bit concerned about the legality, is that the position?" Mr Yip: "Correct."
In Mr Yip's report to Custom Credit tabled at the inquiry yesterday, one of the recommendations listed was that the brothel was "trading as a legitimate business and complying with the Tax Commission's requirements".
Mr Yip wrote that the brothel was a "service organisation whose products are in continual demand".
PAGE 11: Jail for the silent bookie.
© 1988 Sydney Morning Herald