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| Carl Wulff |
Wulff was the lack-lustre CEO of the Ipswich City Council from 2006 to 2013.
Word around the business community in Ipswich was that he was constantly fighting with councillors, wilfully and deliberately keeping information from them and running the council like his own private company.
The Court of Appeal was told that after his arrest in October 2017 by the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) Wulff had obtained a job as a traffic controller - a stop/go man.
"There's an opportunity here, win the work, do it at the right price, you'll make [Wulff] look good. Paul (Pisasale) will be happy. Everyone will be getting their piece and there's no problem."
As Wulff's appeal and those of his three partners in crime have been unanimously dismissed, he now faces deportation to the United Kingdom when he is released from jail.
With his experience as a stop/go man, when Wulff is released in 2021 he should "stop" off at the nearest Qantas office and "go" straight back to Scotland.
Through high living at his and his wife's mansion in the Greater Springfield suburb of Brookwater as well as sheer greed, Wulff corruptly pocketed over $241,000 in bribes and paybacks in association with his three co-conspirators - his wife Sharon Oxenbridge and businessmen Wayne Myers and Claude Walker.
Wulff had been the CEO of Greater Dandenong, then Ipswich and later the Liverpool City Council in Sydney's west, before the councillors at Liverpool finally booted him out the door.
His prior local government experience was at the previously corrupt Wollongong City Council, south of Sydney.
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| Carl Wulff and his wife Sharon Oxenbridge |
Wulff was forced to resign from Ipswich City Council in 2013 after it was revealed his investment unit at Hamilton in Brisbane had been rented to Claude Walker, who had been engaged by Wulff as an exorbitantly paid consultant to the Council following the disastrous January 2011 Brisbane and Ipswich flood.
Unbeknown to councillors at the time, Walker's rent was being paid by the Ipswich City Council meaning that Wulff's mortgage was actually financed by the ratepayers of Ipswich.
With a sense of justifiable rage, the Mayor Paul Pisasale stepped in and Wulff was gone in 24 hours.
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| Happier times for Carl Wulff with Maha Sinnathamby, Chairman of Springfield City Group |
When he was facing sentence in the District Court at the end of 2017, Wulff even offered to work for the CCC going around Queensland lecturing councillors in the state's 77 local governments about the evils of corruption.
His very kind - albeit totally ridiculous - offer was quite rightly rejected in record time by the CCC.
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| The Ipswich Gang of Four: Carl Wulff, Wayne Myers, Sharon Oxenbridge and Claude Walker |
Just imagine having a corrupt convict educating councillors how to be on their best corporate behaviour at all times!
No nonsense councillor Paul Tully is likely to have punched him out on the spot to avoid being forced to listen to hours of drivel from this self-confessed rorter.
Wulff was acting delusionally if he thought the CCC would welcome him with open arms to their Fortitude Valley headquarters.
The only time they welcomed Wulff at their front door was to escort him to the notorious "Star Chamber" where witnesses automatically lose their ancient common law right against self-incrimination.
If Wulff had rigidly stuck to his story to "hold the line" over his corrupt conduct, referred to by the Court of Appeal, it's surprising he didn't face charges of perjury.
At least his wife Sharon saw the writing on the wall by finally rolling-over according to the Court of Appeal judgement on page 8:
"Oxenbridge said that following her direction to appear before the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) Wulff gave her a handwritten note that outlined aspects of the consultancy work supposedly done for Myers and suggested that she use that to explain the payments received from Myers. At that stage Oxenbridge refused to co-operate further and made admissions as to her involvement."
No nonsense councillor Paul Tully is likely to have punched him out on the spot to avoid being forced to listen to hours of drivel from this self-confessed rorter.
Wulff was acting delusionally if he thought the CCC would welcome him with open arms to their Fortitude Valley headquarters.
The only time they welcomed Wulff at their front door was to escort him to the notorious "Star Chamber" where witnesses automatically lose their ancient common law right against self-incrimination.
If Wulff had rigidly stuck to his story to "hold the line" over his corrupt conduct, referred to by the Court of Appeal, it's surprising he didn't face charges of perjury.
At least his wife Sharon saw the writing on the wall by finally rolling-over according to the Court of Appeal judgement on page 8:
"Oxenbridge said that following her direction to appear before the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) Wulff gave her a handwritten note that outlined aspects of the consultancy work supposedly done for Myers and suggested that she use that to explain the payments received from Myers. At that stage Oxenbridge refused to co-operate further and made admissions as to her involvement."
But to be fair about Wulff's offer to work for the CCC, based on his extensive experience, Wulff would have been highly-qualified for the job!
Wulff's offer to the CCC in order to get a reduced sentence didn't work with the trial judge or the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal Judges said at page 7 of their decision that another now-jailed businessman Wayne Innes claimed Myers had approached him and said:
"There's an opportunity here, win the work, do it at the right price, you'll make [Wulff] look good. Paul (Pisasale) will be happy. Everyone will be getting their piece and there's no problem."
This is a very interesting observation by the Court of Appeal: If former Mayor Paul Pisasale would have been "happy" with those corrupt arrangements, was he aware of them and if so, did he report them to the CCC?
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| Carl Wulff hands out how-to-vote cards in 2017 for corrupt former Ipswich Mayor Andrew Antoniolli |
He is of Scottish descent and failed to take out Australian citizenship during the past 60 years.
The Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton, who favours easy visas for au pair girls, should be prepared to take a hard line on Wulff, as he did with the Tamil family from Biloela, to send a clear message to white-collar non-Australian citizens that their criminal conduct is not acceptable in Australia.
As a convicted felon, Wulff is barred from visiting his family members in the United States for at least 10 years because of what the US Government calls his moral turpitude - "an act or behaviour that gravely violates the sentiment or accepted standard of the community".
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| The Courier-Mail 11 September 2019 |
The people of Ipswich will rise as one and shout: "Good riddance Big Bad Wulff!"
Court of Appeal Decision, 10 September 2019:
https://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/QCA/2019/183
https://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/QCA/2019/183
