$50,000 Sought 'to Pay Officer'

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday December 2, 1993

By MALCOLM BROWN

A former company director, Mr Neville John Shalhoub, had asked a bank loans manager in 1990 for an advance of $50,000 to assist in getting a development application through Randwick Council, the Independent Commission Against Corruption heard yesterday.

Mr John David Best, a consultant, who at that time was an employee of the Challenge Bank, said Mr Shalhoub had said he wanted the money to pay an officer of the council.

On application from one of the lawyers appearing yesterday, the assistant ICAC commissioner, Mr John Mant, who is conducting a hearing into relations between Randwick Council and developers, suppressed the name of the council officer at least until the officer has given evidence.

Mr Bruce McClintock, counsel assisting the inquiry, asked Mr Best: "Did he say what the purpose of the payment was?"

Mr Best: "He said he wanted to get a greater amount of units on the site."

Mr Best said he had told Mr Shalhoub: "Don't do that."

He said Mr Shalhoub's request was refused on the spot.

Mr Best, who declined yesterday to state his address in public, said he had a consultation with Mr Shalhoub on October 4, 1990.

He said Mr Shalhoub's total debt to the Challenge Bank at the time was $1.2 million. The bank understood that the nursing home which Mr Shalhoub ran in Coogee Bay Road, Coogee, through his company, Shalhoub Holdings, should continue to operate because it appeared to be the only cash flow Mr Shalhoub had to service the debt.

Mr Best said Mr Shalhoub had mentioned difficulties he was having with the Commonwealth Bank, which had declined to increase the size of his overdraft.

"He told us he had a difficulty with the Commonwealth Bank," Mr Best said. "He seemed to have a difficulty with the regional manager of the Commonwealth Bank.

"He was going to get details of the background of that regional manager because he was making life difficult for him."

Mr McClintock: "Did you say something in response to that?"

Mr Best: "I told him to forget about that sort of business and concentrate on running the nursing home."

Mr Shalhoub had said he wanted to redevelop the nursing home site, that he intended to "run down" the nursing home by the end of the year and had signed a letter of agreement to sell, for $420,000, his Certificate of Approval to run a nursing home.

The inquiry resumes today.