Police in drinks probe

By Rebecca Fraser
NARRE Warren police have been called in to investigate claims that a Casey councillor stole alcohol from the council offices.
Last week Springfield Ward councillor Michael Farley contacted police about the allegations that concern his council colleague and state Liberal candidate Mick Morland.
Detective Sergeant Garry Kear of Narre Warren Criminal Investigation Unit this week confirmed that Cr Farley had reported the allegations to police.
Det Sgt Kear said he would now conduct an investigation to determine whether a criminal offence had in fact occurred.
He said he would be reviewing video surveillance footage from the council offices over the coming days and hoped the investigation would be finished by the end of the week.
Cr Farley, a Labor councillor, said there were no political motives behind his decision to contact the police.
He said he was glad that Cr Morland had been publicly named and the issue had been brought out into the open as he felt the issue was reflecting badly on all councillors.
“I have the utmost respect and admire councillor Morland. I would have done this with people from any political party.
“I felt this was the right thing to do. At the moment these are just allegations and if he gets cleared he gets cleared and this would be good. But the matter needs to be dealt with now,” he said.
As previously reported in the News, a sub-committee was recently formed comprising mayor Kevin Bradford, Cr Rob Wilson, CEO Mike Tyler and manager of corporate services Steve Dalton to consider the operation and use of facilities within councillor’s rooms.
Councillors recently voted to wait until they received the findings of another investigation into whether Cr Paul Richardson breached the Local Government Act by releasing confidential information to the media before dealing with the matter.
Cr Morland is the Liberal candidate for Narre Warren North and Cr Farley said it was in his colleague’s best interests to have the matter dealt with before the November elections.
“If the matter is deferred it could come up a month or two months before the elections and could stop him (Cr Morland) from getting a good run.
“The media would have had a field day with him.
“If it is dealt with now he will have time to start afresh and work hard on his campaign,” he said.
Cr Morland said he had no problems with Cr Farley contacting the police as he had done nothing wrong.
“I have no problem with him putting this in the hands of police.
“I want this to be resolved so this rubbish does not go any further. I want this to be brought to a head so I can go on doing what I do,” he said.