DEALER 'SOLD DRUGS FOR EX-DETECTIVES'

A DRUG dealer yesterday claimed he had sold "LSD trips" on behalf of two
former detectives from the Drug Enforcement Agency. The dealer, P4, told
the Police Integrity Commission the detectives handed him an envelope
containing LSD, which they seized from his flatmate, after he had "dobbed
him in".

P4 claims former Senior Sergeant Guy Wilding - a sometime consultant on the
TV drama Stingers - and Senior Constable Michael Kempnich, instructed him
to sell the LSD and pay them the proceeds.

P4 said it took him a few days to sell the drugs, after which he met the
detectives and handed over about $10,000.

He claims he was not given a cut of the proceeds.

In other evidence, P4's sister, P6, told how her brother paid Mr Wilding
and Mr Kempnich $30,000 to write her a "letter of comfort" supporting a
reduction of her sentence for ecstasy supply.

The Operation Florida hearing is investigating allegations of corruption by
DEA detectives and the use of "letters of assistance" or "letters of
comfort" tendered by police in sentencing procedures.

The documents detail alleged assistance provided by informants and have at
times led to a 60 per cent reduction in the sentences meted out.

P6 told the Commission that P4 telephoned her in Melbourne and told her to
fax 10 pages from the police brief of evidence against her to a Sydney number.

She said she was instructed to telephone another Sydney number after she
had sent the fax to confirm its arrival.

She was told only that it would help her with her case.

P6 said she heard nothing more about it until the day of her sentencing in
the Victorian County Court on December 4, 1992.

She said she was "in shock" when she was shown a document written by Mr
Wilding and Mr Kempnich stating that information supplied by her had been
"instrumental" in the seizure of a record 33,000 ecstasy tablets in Manly.

"I did not know the people in the document, I did not know the information
I was supposed to have given.

"I didn't know the quantity or anything about this document except that I
was in shock when I read it and thought that this would definitely help
me," P6 said.

P6 received a 6 month sentence and said she telephoned Mr Wilding, whom she
knew as "Guy W", and thanked him for his help.

"I called him and thanked him for faxing the letter promptly that day,
that's all I said, I was discreet," she said.

The hearing, before Acting Commissioner Tim Sage, continues.