Sinclair’s security worry for police

Press, 20 October 1981, Page 3

Sinclair’s security worry for police

PA Auckland British authorities plan to move the New Zealand drug boss, Alexander James Sinclair, to a different prison every few months to lessen the risk of an escape, according to an Australian author, Richard Hall.

Mr Hall has spent almost two years investigating the “Mr Asia” syndicate for his recently published book, “Greed.” Mr Hall said the British police were “almost obsessed” with the idea that Sinclair’s hidden fortune from drug dealing would be used to help him escape from prison.

“After his court case the police used a convoy of 13 cars and a helicopter to take him to prison,” he said. Only two weeks ago, Sinclair — also known as Terry Clark in New Zealand — was moved from the maximum security prison, Wormwood Scrubs, said Mr Hall.

“It is not certain where he is now but he is probably on the Isle of Wight. “The idea is to keep him in perpetual rotation between a shortlist of maximum security prisons,” he said. “Sinclair is awaiting an appeal against his life sentence for the murder of “Mr Asia,” Martin Johnstone, of Auckland. He has been sentenced to serve a minimum of 20 years jail before parole will be considered.

Mr Hall, at present touring New Zealand to promote his book, estimates Sinclair could still- have up to SlO million hidden. He said the New Zealand police had been hindered in their attempts to break up the “Mr Asia” syndicate by a lack of resources and a tight budget. “The New Zealand authorities seemed mesmerised by the width of the Tasman and would not meet the expense

of sending men over to Australia;” he said. But although the Sinclair empire had been able to corrupt Australian policemen and buy information, there was no evidence of corruption in the New Zealand police. Mr Hall said his one criticism of both Australian and New Zealand police was their obsession with intelli-gence-gathering. “When he (Sinclair) was on the way up, getting a conviction was lost sight of,” he said.

He was still puzzled by the apparent lack of action by the New Zealand Law Society and its Australian equivalent on assertions made by the Crown prosecutor at the trial of Sinclair and his co-defendants. Mr Hall said assertions that the syndicate had lawyers on retainers should have been investigated in both countries.