Fed; John Elliott orderd to pay hefty court costs

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-2001
Fed; John Elliott orderd to pay hefty court costs

By Royal Abbott

MELBOURNE, Dec 7 AAP - Businessman John Elliott has been ordered to pay court costs
estimated to be as high as $5 million over his aborted bid to prove the National Crime
Authority (NCA) conducted a vendetta against him.

In the Federal Court in Melbourne today, Justice Donnell (Donnell) Ryan dismissed a
long-running law suit the Carlton Football Club chairman had brought against the NCA,
its then head Tom Sherman and others and ordered Mr Elliott pay their costs.

Mr Elliott alleged he had been the target of a political conspiracy and the victim
of illegal acts by the NCA over its investigations of multi-million dollar transactions
involving pastoral company Elders IXL dating back to 1986.

Former Elders finance director Ken Jarrett pleaded guilty to being party to a $78 million
profit he said he shared with Mr Elliott and which was kept secret from company shareholders
in 1986.

He was sentenced to six months jail over the affair, but Mr Elliott maintained his
innocence throughout.

The NCA also pursued Mr Elliott over a $66 million payment to New Zealand entrepreneur
Allan Hawkins in 1988 but that case was thrown out on a technicality after a lengthy court
case.

Mr Elliott throughout has insisted he has been the subject of a witch hunt and later
sued the NCA for $200 million damages and challenged the legality of its actions in court,
but later abandoned the proceedings.

Justice Ryan said in his ruling today that the legal processes launched by Mr Elliott
had been long and complex.

"As the tortured history of this case demonstrates, there has been complex argument
of a most extensive kind which has resulted in the striking out or abandonment of successive
attempts to plead a variety of causes of action," he said.

His action against the NCA was dismissed and Justice Ryan ordered Mr Elliott to pay
costs to all defendants.

A legal source close to the case said Mr Elliott could have to pay a "ballpark" total
of between $3 million and $5 million in legal costs because of the number of defendants
and the length and complexity of the proceedings.

Justice Ryan said the only legal avenue left open for Mr Elliott was to pursue former
Cain government minister Steve Crabb for "misfeasance in public office" over his involvement
in the long-running saga.

AAP ra/gfr/cd/sb /

KEYWORD: ELLIOTT

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.