Coppers from Strike Force Raptor harass NSW country solicitor acting for a bikie … Intimidation … Stalked, shaken and stirred … Prevented from representing the client … A good wet lettuceing … Law Society knocks on the commissioner’s door … Janek Drevikovsky reports 

In a message to her troops, law society president Juliana Warner said she had written to Fuller “expressing [her] concerns” about the incident, which was revealed last month in a Law Enforcement Conduct Commission report. 

Three police officers, the report found, had “deliberate[ly], deceitful[lly] and malicious[ly]” followed the solicitor, fined him for technical offences and subjected him to unjustified vehicle checks – for no “legitimate policing purpose”.

The conduct was, in Ms Warner’s words, “unacceptable” and has “raised significant concerns across the legal profession”. 

Codenamed Operation Monza, the LECC’s report details two days of abuse suffered by the solicitor at the hands of special task force police. 

In mid-2019, the solicitor, who lives and works in a regional area, was representing a bikie gang member on animal cruelty charges. 

Police officers from Strike Force Raptor, an anti-bikie operation, were due to give evidence in the case. The solicitor insisted they appear in person, rather than by video link, the officers’ preferred option.  

On the morning of the hearing, the inspector in charge held a briefing. He told his two constables that the solicitor was “with the bikies” and their job was to make sure he “doesn’t get to court”. 

The constables found the solicitor’s address and waited outside his house. At 7 am, the solicitor pulled out of his driveway onto an empty street. He forgot to indicate. 

The two officers pulled him over and fined him. The offending was trivial, the LECC said, and did not deserve a fine. 

Shaken, the solicitor drove to an auto repair shop, where he had arranged to meet his partner. The police followed him. 

At the mechanic’s, the constables again pulled the lawyer over. They demanded to see his licence. He had left it at home. 

Wanting to avoid further trouble, the solicitor started driving home to collect the licence. On the way, he was again stopped by the officers. 

This time, they wanted to conduct a road-worthiness inspection. They checked the car’s seat belts and engine. Apparently, the seat belts did not retract properly and there was an oil leak. 

The constables issued a “major defect” notice, which made it illegal for the lawyer to use the vehicle until it could be repaired. The solicitor maintains there was no oil leak. 

Without his own car, the lawyer called a taxi. Again, the police followed him. When the taxi pulled up at the court, they detained the driver, threatening to fine him for not indicating at a roundabout. 

By now, the solicitor was, in his words, “shaken up”. He could see the two constables waiting for him in the court’s carpark. They nodded at him when he made eye contact. 

In court, the lawyer explained to the magistrate what had happened. She granted an adjournment. Then, as he was leaving the courtroom, the lawyer saw five to ten Strike Force Raptor police waiting for him outside. 

He was “so intimidated” that he asked the magistrate to use her private exit, which she allowed. 

He then contacted his client and told him to find a new lawyer. 

The ordeal was not over, just yet. The next day, he rode his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to work, because his car was still the subject of a “major defect”. 

The same two Strike Force Raptor constables visited the solicitor’s officer; they inspected the motorbike and left a notice on it, saying the vehicle had been referred for noise violations. 

At no point did the police listen to the motorbike’s engine. Their evidence to the LECC was that the bike’s exhaust pipes were so large that, obviously, there would be noise pollution. 

“The commission finds that [the solicitor] was targeted, either because he was thought to be associated with an outlaw motorcycle gang, or because he had requested for all police officers involved in [his client’s] case to attend court in person.”

 The effect of the harassment was to prevent the lawyer from representing his client. That was unacceptable: 

“Officers of the NSWPF are not entitled to interfere with the representation of a client by a solicitor or counsel because they do not approve of the client.”

The report stopped short of recommending the three police officers’ dismissal, but it did urge the commissioner to take disciplinary action.

Fuller has yet to respond to the inquiry, which was tabled in parliament in late March.