By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Former Casey mayors Sam Aziz and Geoff Ablett accepted more than $1.15 million in payments and in-kind support for promoting developer John Woodman or his clients’ interests on council, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission found this year.
The watchdog released its report into Operation Sandon in July, with the investigation centring on four planning proposals involving John Woodman and his clients, including one to rezone land in Cranbourne West as residential to increase its value.
The councillors repeatedly failed to declare conflicts of interest and continued trying to influence other councillors even when they did, IBAC said.
Beyond the council, Mr Woodman donated more than $470,000 to the Labor and Liberal parties between 2010 and 2019 to access state decision-makers, and to the election campaigns of three Labor MPs.
State Coroner David Ryan found that Casey former mayor Amanda Stapledon believed she was headed for jail over corruption allegations when she took her own life.
Ms Stapledon, 58, was found dead in her car near Cranbourne Botanic Gardens on 18 January 2022 – just days after her lawyers received adverse extracts from an Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission draft report.
At the time, the lawyers had not read the extracts or provided a copy of the extracts to Ms Stapledon.
She left behind letters for family and friends expressing “regret and shame for her actions” as well as concern about losing her home and access to her disabled son Peter.
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