The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 3

SATURDAY 22 FEBRUARY 1997 THE AGE A3 More staff jobs toiled to Qoiim, court told iiiMl I I "Was mi Man in court on hit-run charges By SUSHILA DAS, court reporter A Carlton man charged over the hit-and-run death of the Sunset Haulevard musical director, Mr Brian Stacey, could face up to two years in jail if found guilty, Melbourne Magistrates Court was told yesterday. Mr Simon Andrew Lenten, 28, of Elgin Street, is accused of being the driver of a car that struck Mr Stacey's motorcycle at a Carlton intersection about lam on 25 October last year. Mr Stacey. one of Australia's leading conductors, died in hospital on the same day the eve of the Australian premiere of Sunset liimii'vard. Police allege Mr Lenten, who appeared briefly in court, did not give way at the intersection, kept driving after the accident and failed to report it to police.

Mr Geoffrey Stewart' f'r Mr Lenten, said any attempt to have the case heard in the County Court instead of a mag istrates court would be resisted The two most serious charges faced by Mr Lenten, one of failing to stop alter an accident and one of failing to render assistance, carried a maximum term of imprisonment of two years. he case therefore fell within the jurisdiction of a magistrates court and did not need to hi' dealt with by a higher court. The prosecutor, Mr Michael Robinson, said it was too early to say whether the application for a magistrates court hearing would lie opposed. The other charges faced In Mr Lenten are one count each of failing to report the accident to police, failing to give his name and address at the scene of the accident, failing to give way at an intersection and careless driving. Mr Steward said the case had received a great deal of publiciu and his client wanted to have the matter dealt with quickly because an early resolution was in everybody's interest, including Mr Stacey's family.

Mr Lenten was released on bail on his own undertaking after he was charged on 1 1 l-eh ruary. The magistrate, Mr lolian adjourned the case until 23 April when Mr Lenten is expected to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court. 4 a A 1 at nvt i By PETER GREGORY, chief court reporter Building work and materials charged to Mr Brian Quinn's house renovations were used on the houses of other senior Coles Myer employees, a Supreme Court jury was told yesterday. Mr Robert I.ockhart, the building supervisor at Mr Quinn's Templestowe home for five years, said the charges, as far as he knew, were made without the knowledge of Mr Quinn, who was then Coles chief. He said the charges were made on the orders of Mr Graham Lanyon, the company's national maintenance manager and Mr Quinn's co-accused in an alleged $4.46 million conspiracy.

Mr Lockhart agreed during cross-examination that Mr Lanyon had received materials and work worth between $20,000 and $25,000, from 1983 to 1988, which was charged to the Quinn project at County Terrace. He said work was done on two other houses, one of them owned by an accounting manager, and charged to the Quinn house. Mr Lockhart said he originally charged supplies, worth about $3000, to Mr Lanyon, who told him to scrub the job number and charge it to Mr Quinn. Mr Lockhart said that as far as he was concerned it was a Coles project, the house belonged to the company and the costs were charged to Coles, even if it was under a job number assigned to Mr Quinn. "When I asked Lanyon (he) said: 'I have an agreement with Coles and this is the way it is going to be done.

Charge the thing through to that job he said. Mr I.ockhart said he had never discussed the charges with Mr Quinn and agreed with the junior defence counsel, Mr David Galbally, QC, that as far as he knew, Mr Quinn and his wife, Mrs T'renna Quinn, never knew about it. Mr Quinn, 60, has pleaded not guilty to a charge that he conspired with Mr Lanyon to defraud Coles of $4.46 million, most of it allegedly spent on the Quinns' house. The offence was said to have occurred between I September 1982 and 6 October 1988. The prosecution alleges that over six years Mr Quinn dishonestly used company funds to pay for work at the house while making it appear it was done at Coles Myer properties.

The defence has said Mr Quinn was as much a victim of fraud by a corrupt maintenance department which did deals with preferred contractors as his employer was. Mr Lockhart said yesterday that an invoice for $104,028, shown to him by Mr Galbally and charged to the Quinn project, was a fraud. The invoice concerned the construction and supply of an air-conditioning unit and the supply and installation of a chandelier. He said the invoice was in the name of his then employer, George T. Jackson builders, but the company never did air-conditioning work and did not supply or install the chandelier.

Mr Lockhart said he knew nothing about that or another invoice, which he said was a forgery, for timber worth $12,206. During cross-examination by Mr Galbally, Mr Lockhart said he had been charged after a fraud inquiry into building renovation work for the Victorian Dairy Industry Authority. He said the case, against him and two others, was thrown out in the magistrates court and there was no case to answer. Mr Lockhart said he was the pawn in the centre of the case. He said he had never made estimates about the cost of the project and knew nothing about a suggested estimate of $185,000.

he trial, before Justice Geoffrey Fames, continues. Mr Maclellan says: "It's a casino entertainment centre, and I think one should make allowances. It's not a good taste zone." Picture: MARK WILSON Minister cannot digest new casino's bad taste LOW IT By SHANE GREEN, state political editor The Planning Minister, Mr Rob Maclellan, has given the thumbs down to the design of one of the Premier's most celebrated projects, the new Crown casino. Mr Maclellan said: "I suppose I'm going to upset most of the major architectural practices if I respond honestly, which I will, which is I don't like it, no, I think Mussolini would have loved it. "Then it's a casino.

It's a casino entertainment centre, and I think one should make allowances. It's not a good taste zone. It's where people go for something different and it is Mr Maclellan who has become one of the states most controversial ministers said he was not the Minister for Good Taste. The design of the casino was a factor in the Crown consortium being awarded the casino licence ahead of ITT Sheraton. The architect who headed the panel assessing the competing designs, Professor Peter Mcln-tyre, was reported in 1994 as saying the proposal was "over- crass" the gambling industry to provide for the quality end of society.

The comments were made in an off-the-cuff speech to a conference of librarians being held next to the temporary casino, and provoked an angry response from people attending the conference. "If they'd told me that, it would have been a brilliant insight, not known by me. But because I told them that, it was patronising, condescending and offensive," Mr Maclellan said. Crown Casino last night confirmed the permanent casino was not likely to open until late April and possibly May after the heatwave this month seriously disrupted work. Confirmation of the delay followed huge turnover in the group's shares yesterday as investors, worried about a possible blow-out in costs at the $1.6 billion project, sliced another five cents from the share price.

SATURDAY EXTRA: Maclellan profile. PAGE B1: Casino opening delay. it' Good eJntJGu Fo, whclmingly the best It is Mr Maclcllan's second controversial public comment about the casino. Last year he talked about "taxing the GRAND PRIX All-night trams on trial at Grand Prix, Moomba Free express trams from Spencer and Hinders Street Stations to the circuit every minute in peak times. after-midnight tram, lv NightLink, between Fitzroy, 1 ft and Brunswick Streets; '-from 12.30am to 4.30am on Saturday and Sunday, March.

8 stations to the Albert Park circuit throughout the Grand Prix period. They are expected to carry more than 490,000 people. A bus service will replace the local tram service for the duration of the race, and Grand Prix patrons will be given information on the local shopping precincts. The new NightLink tram service will operate every 20 minutes on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 12.30am to 5.30am, when services are usually closed. One route runs from Melbourne University down Swanston Street, along Batman Avenue and Swan Street to Chapel Street, then into Carlisle Street, terminating at Acland Street.

The other route runs from North Fitzroy via Brunswick Street, down Bourke Street to St Kilda, also ending at Acland Street Fares will be charged at the normal Met rate. By SANDRA McKAY Twenty-four-hour tram services will be introduced on selected lines in Melbourne during the Grand Prix and Moomba weekends, and could become a permanent fixture next summer if the trials are successful. Announcing extended services for the Grand Prix, the Transport Minister, Mr Robin Cooper, said trams would run all night on Friday and Saturday 7 and 8 March, on two lines linking the entertainment areas of St Kilda, Fitzroy and South Yarra. The all-night trams would also run on the Moomba festival weekends of 14-15 March and 21-22 March. "If the trial proves successful, the new hours will be extended to cover the entire daylight saving period from November to March," he said.

Free express tram services will run from Spencer Street and Flinders Street Trams every two minutes along Clarendon Street at peak race times. Qte'5 and cys" '8in services on Saturday and fMore frequent NightRider buses for Bayswater, Croydon, Dandenong and Frankston services. fCity Cfrcle tamsVopeTate Wsj until 9pm on Thursdays, few Fridays and Saturdays for the -l next month. 9 tj mm Expert says burning cows may help spread anthrax oil ifii jjjjl History hints at a disease timebomb was unable to pay his annual lease fee due to extensive sheep deaths. Anthrax was not diagnosed, but the disease was around at the time, said Victorians chief veterinary officer, Dr Andrew Turner, and the bacteria can survive in soil for decades.

The outbreak in north-eastern Victoria is baffling because of Its persistence. Since anthrax was Identified on Australia Day, the farms affected and cattle lost has increased. Stock losses are now starting to slow as the vaccination program bites. Dr Turner said that Investigation of the microclimate of the soil and plants on Infected properties could provide clues to why the outbreak has been so persistent. PAGE A23: The drop-dead disease.

By TANIA EWING The Tatura anthrax crisis may have been caused by a combination of freak weather conditions and a previously unrecorded outbreak of the disease in the area last century. An International search for anthrax scares like the one in northeastern Victoria has found two similar scenarios in the United States in the early 1 970s. In each case, drought preceded the appearance of the disease and Its subsequent spread beyond quarantine areas. Records show Victoria north-east has been unusually hot, dry and humid. A check of pastoral leases from last century by the Victorian Institute of Animal Science has revealed that a farmer In the Tatura-Stanhope area By TIM WINKLER, environment reporter The incineration of cows killed by anthrax may release deadly spores intothe air, further spreading the disease, an academic said yesterday.

Following news that the disease had again spread outside the control zone west of Tatura, a senior lecturer in pharmaceutical microbiology at Mon-ash University, Dr Ian Griffith, said there were a number of cases where anthrax spores had been disseminated through the air. He said he was also concerned if carcases were only partially burnt. "Carcases should be reduced to ashes. Even then there is a risk that spores could get taken up in the updraft and be distributed that way. Spores can resist temperatures of at least 100 degrees Celsius," he said.

It was an obvious error to place carcases on top of firewood, Dr Griffith said. "Fires built on top of carcases would reduce the possibility of aerial spread." In Russia, 66 people were killed by pulmonary anthrax when a plume of the disease escaped from a biological warfare research centre in 1979. In America, carcases are buried beneath worm level with a Coating of lime. The 1995 Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, published in the US, explicitly states animals should not be bumed in open fields. The State Opposition has written to the Agriculture Minister, Mr Pat McNamara, requesting that all burn ing of carcases be stopped until the MaroaraTjsHorji trmagiO mm tm Pwtytw ipmrcBrB.

Qsxtsn cm Today Sunday l-4pm 88 Park Street, South Melbourne A spokeswoman for Mr McNamara said the burning procedures had been endorsed by all states, territories and the Commonwealth and. burning was the method of disposal used around the world. Yesterday four more anthrax outbreaks and five more cattle deaths were reported, taking the tally to 75 outbreaks, 144 cattle deaths and one sheep death. More than 36,000 cattle and 900 sheep have been vaccinated. Last night, Mr McNamara told ABC's Statellne program that farmers might receive compensation for cattle lost to anthrax.

safety issue could be verified. Dr Griffith said it would be easy to establish if fires were spreading the disease by analysing smoke samples. A spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Dr John Galvin, said the disease had broken out three kilometres to the north-west of the control zone yesterday. The new outbreak Is the second outside the 15-kilometre zone where all other deaths have occurred. He said that In all previous anthrax outbreaks carcases had been burned and there was no evidence that fires had spread the disease.

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