as posted on WAToday
* Chris Thomson
* October 2, 2008 - 7:47AM
A principal of Perth's Australian Islamic College who was charged with fraud after allegedly obtaining $3 million of state and federal funding is likely to have his passport returned so he can spend Christmas in China.
In June, Major Fraud Squad officers charged Mark Brian Debowski, 50, and his associates Abdallah Saad Magar, 69, and Aziz Magdi, 53, after search warrants were executed at three of the college's schools in Thornlie, Kewdale and Dianella.
In Perth Magistrates Court yesterday, Debowski's lawyer Andrew Maugham asked that his client's seized passport be returned so he could travel to China for business and to visit relatives between December 19 and January 29.
Mr Maugham said Debowski planned to stay in the city of Shantou, which sprawls along the coast of the South China Sea.
Mr Maugham said his client did not pose a flight risk because he had family and business ties to Perth, and a $2 million property in Peppermint Grove.
Debowski last visited China in July 2008, well after the fraud investigation had started, and had returned without incident, Mr Maugham argued.
Debowski has not yet pleaded to the fraud charges but Mr Maugham said they were likely to be defended.
"I believe there are deficiencies in the state's case," Mr Maugham said.
Mr Maugham argued there was no suggestion Debowski personally benefitted from the alleged fraud.
"My submission is the funding was required to keep the school open," Mr Maugham said.
Crown prosecutor Raymond Soh opposed the return of Debowski's passport, arguing the absence of an extradition treaty between China and Australia increased the flight risk.
Mr Soh said the Australian Federal Police, WA Police and Customs Australia had been closely tracking Debowski's movements.
"His travel plans to China are a luxury for a recreational purpose," Mr Soh argued.
Magistrate Stephen Heath adjourned the bail amendment application until November 18.
But he said he would recommend to the magistrate sitting that day that Debowski have his passport returned provided he could pay a $1 million surety, a $100,000 personal undertaking and a $20,000 cash deposit.
as posted on WAToday
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Nursing home operators hit a brick wall
as posted on TheAustralian
Victoria Laurie | October 02, 2008
RESIDENTIAL nursing home owners are closing beds and turning down hundreds of new federally funded bed licences in Western Australia, prompting warnings of a looming crisis in aged care in the fast-growing state.
Aged care operators have declined to take up 360 bed licences out of 1000 offered in the federal Government's 2007-08 funding round because they cannot afford to build new facilities or find staff for them. It is thought to be the first time a state has declined to take up such funding.
WA is 2000 beds shy of government targets, and the shortfall is expected to increase rapidly. A Productivity Commission report released last week found that demand for aged care services would rocket in the next 40 years. The number of Australians older than 85 is forecast to increase fourfold.
Stephen Kobelke from Aged and Community Services WA said the industry had spurned once-lucrative bed licences. "I was shocked," Mr Kobelke said. "Normally there would have been competition for those licences, but now the Government can't give them away."
He said several not-for-profit aged care facilities had told him they intended to hand back bed licences because they could not find staff to work in jobs paying less than $40,000 a year.
Construction of new residential care homes had slowed to a trickle, Mr Kobelke said, due to a 9.3 per cent hike in building and operating costs in metropolitan Perth. "There is no business case to set up a new aged care home, even on a charitable basis," he said.
Mr Kobelke welcomed the Senate inquiry into aged and community care facilities announced last week, but said inadequate funding coupled with the WA's resources and construction boom made the state a critical case.
The Productivity Commission found that the number of people older than 85 would increase from about 400,000 to 1.6million by 2047, and that changing health patterns would increase the number of frail older people needing intensive nursing care.
But Amana Living chief executive Ray Glickman, whose Anglican Church body operates 15 residential care facilities, said staff were already in acute short supply in Perth.
Mr Glickman said 40 per cent of shifts in some nursing homes were being covered by costly agency staff, and he was struggling to keep doors open in regions where even agencies could not supply any workers. "Things are too serious now for us to remain silent," he said.
David Fenwick, who runs the 173-bed Amaroo Village in Gosnells, in Perth's southwest, said he had closed his waiting list when it reached 153 people.
"The Government has abandoned Australia's elderly in both pensions and aged care, and we need help to meet the real capital cost in Perth of providing new aged care beds at $220,000 per bed place," he said.
as posted on TheAustralian
Victoria Laurie | October 02, 2008
RESIDENTIAL nursing home owners are closing beds and turning down hundreds of new federally funded bed licences in Western Australia, prompting warnings of a looming crisis in aged care in the fast-growing state.
Aged care operators have declined to take up 360 bed licences out of 1000 offered in the federal Government's 2007-08 funding round because they cannot afford to build new facilities or find staff for them. It is thought to be the first time a state has declined to take up such funding.
WA is 2000 beds shy of government targets, and the shortfall is expected to increase rapidly. A Productivity Commission report released last week found that demand for aged care services would rocket in the next 40 years. The number of Australians older than 85 is forecast to increase fourfold.
Stephen Kobelke from Aged and Community Services WA said the industry had spurned once-lucrative bed licences. "I was shocked," Mr Kobelke said. "Normally there would have been competition for those licences, but now the Government can't give them away."
He said several not-for-profit aged care facilities had told him they intended to hand back bed licences because they could not find staff to work in jobs paying less than $40,000 a year.
Construction of new residential care homes had slowed to a trickle, Mr Kobelke said, due to a 9.3 per cent hike in building and operating costs in metropolitan Perth. "There is no business case to set up a new aged care home, even on a charitable basis," he said.
Mr Kobelke welcomed the Senate inquiry into aged and community care facilities announced last week, but said inadequate funding coupled with the WA's resources and construction boom made the state a critical case.
The Productivity Commission found that the number of people older than 85 would increase from about 400,000 to 1.6million by 2047, and that changing health patterns would increase the number of frail older people needing intensive nursing care.
But Amana Living chief executive Ray Glickman, whose Anglican Church body operates 15 residential care facilities, said staff were already in acute short supply in Perth.
Mr Glickman said 40 per cent of shifts in some nursing homes were being covered by costly agency staff, and he was struggling to keep doors open in regions where even agencies could not supply any workers. "Things are too serious now for us to remain silent," he said.
David Fenwick, who runs the 173-bed Amaroo Village in Gosnells, in Perth's southwest, said he had closed his waiting list when it reached 153 people.
"The Government has abandoned Australia's elderly in both pensions and aged care, and we need help to meet the real capital cost in Perth of providing new aged care beds at $220,000 per bed place," he said.
as posted on TheAustralian
Suspicious fire in Maddington
as posted on TheWest
A fire that damaged a two-storey house in Maddington this afternoon will be investigated by the police arson squad after being labelled as suspicious.
The blaze at the vacant weatherboard home on Morley Street was reported to the Fire and Rescue Service at about 12.15pm and was brought under control 20 minutes later.
A Fire and Rescue spokeswoman said the cause of the fire was suspicious with the incident causing an estimated $70,000 in damage.
No-one was injured in the blaze.
PERTH
DALE MILLER
as posted on TheWest
A fire that damaged a two-storey house in Maddington this afternoon will be investigated by the police arson squad after being labelled as suspicious.
The blaze at the vacant weatherboard home on Morley Street was reported to the Fire and Rescue Service at about 12.15pm and was brought under control 20 minutes later.
A Fire and Rescue spokeswoman said the cause of the fire was suspicious with the incident causing an estimated $70,000 in damage.
No-one was injured in the blaze.
PERTH
DALE MILLER
as posted on TheWest
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)