Evidence of false passport

Press, 29 May 1982, Page 12

Evidence of false passport

NZPA ‘ Sydney An international drugs ring used the name of a businessman, Harry M. Miller, to obtain a false passport for the "Mr Asia” drug boss Alexander James Sinclair, according to evidence given to an Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry into drugs trafficking The passport was issued to Sinclair in.-the name of a Newcastle man, Robert Andrew Gorrie in April, 1979. Gorrie’s birth certificate had been provided by his wife, Lois Adele Gorrie, who had been “spotted” by two of Sinclair’s associates. Mrs Gorrie was then ap-

proached by Kay Margaret Reynolds, who told her that Miller was in financial trouble and wanted to leave the country. Reynolds later told the Commission, “ I made up a story about a company director, Harry M. Miller, going bust and wanting to get out of the country and he needed •a birth certificate.” (Miller, an entrepreneur, was this month sentenced to three years, jail on charges of fraud after the collapse of the Computicket booking agency.) Details of the arrangement leading to the issue of the passport are outlined in' the second interim report of the

Commission which was tabled in the Federal Senate yesterday.

The report does not suggest any link between Miller and the' drugs syndicate.

According to the report, Mrs Gorrie had told Reynolds; “I will give you my husband’s birth certificate as long as there is no shady deals, anything like that.”

Reynolds then flew to Adelaide, where the certificate was used to obtain an Australian passport for Sinclair, a New Zealander who was also known as Terrence John Clark.

Gorrie’s address on the passport application was given as 4 Kent Road, Rose

Bay, Sydney, which, according to the Royal Commissioner, Mr Justice Stewart, was a property occupied at the time by two other New Zealanders, Douglas and Isabel Wilson.

According to evidence given to the commission the Wilsons were drug couriers, close associates of Sinclair, and who had been giving information to police. They had expressed a fear that Sinclair (Clark), would kill them if he found out.

A month later their bodies were found buried in a sandy grave at Rye, on the Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne.