Victorian authorities search for at least eight alleged criminals after bail monitoring company collapse

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Victorian authorities are scrambling to locate at least eight alleged criminals after the collapse of a bail monitoring company. The company also operated in New South Wales, where more than 20 defendants on bail were using its ankle monitors.

Transcript

00:00It was billed as the private solution to the bail woes for the country's two biggest states.

00:09But today, bailsafe became a very public problem.

00:13Bailsafe's behaviour has been unacceptable.

00:15Complete with GPS tracking, the company sold an expensive alternative to being remanded in custody,

00:21meaning alleged criminals with the means to pay could wait for trial without being locked up.

00:27But last week, bailsafe quietly shut its doors and told no one, including police and the courts.

00:34The closure first came to light in New South Wales, days ago.

00:38The Victorian government admitting it only found out yesterday, after media inquiries.

00:43I just think the whole thing's quite staggering.

00:47If there's a specialist word, it's a schmuzzle. It really is bad.

00:51This afternoon, Victoria police revealed bailsafe had been monitoring eight people,

00:56but its founder, Jackson Oppie, claims that's not true.

00:59He told the ABC he wasn't monitoring anyone when he shut the company down.

01:03GPS tracking is often a condition of bail and has been more routinely used since March of last year by the courts,

01:13particularly in relation to serious youth crime.

01:16And it would appear that at least at the moment, there's no regulation for some of these providers.

01:20But while that didn't appear to be a problem this morning,

01:23The advice I have from Victoria police is that this has no impact on their responsibilities around the bail compliance checking.

01:32Late this afternoon, an 11th hour intervention.

01:35I am going to do something about that. We are going to put a stop to the use of these companies in these circumstances.

01:43New South Wales is also urgently reviewing the situation.

01:47The first job for the Victorian government, working out just how big a role private bail tracking services play.

01:54How many private bail companies are in use or operating in Victoria at the moment?

01:59Well, we know of bailsafe.

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