Pubdate: Wed, 13 Dec 2000
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: News Limited 2000
Contact:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Author: Martin Chulov And Luke Mcilveen

DRUG DEAL SUSPECT USED MP'S PHONE CARD

A taxpayer-funded telecard issued to a NSW minister was used by
suspected international drug dealers who ran up $20,000 in calls,
while another was used by a former Labor MP to earn frequent flyer
points.Almost $20,000 in calls were billed to the telecard used by NSW
Agriculture Minister Richard Amery in 1994, many of which he suspects
were made by drug dealers phoning cohorts around the world.

An Auditor-General's report, tabled in NSW parliament yesterday, also
said two other MPs' telecards had been misused. One MP, National Party
member John Turner, named himself yesterday, claiming his daughter had
racked up a bill of $1393.95 in 1997, which was repaid.

The other MP is understood to be former Labor minister Pam Allan, who
reimbursed $700 in calls made in Australia while she was overseas.

"This would seem to be a breach of the policy that telecards are only
for the use of the member personally," the report said.

Mr Amery told The Australian he became concerned that his card and PIN
details had been used improperly when he was shown a list, some time
in 1994, of countries to which calls had been made.

"I was concerned that (they were) probably in connection with the drug
trade," he said.

An inventory had shown calls were made from public phone boxes in
Sydney to the Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Asia and the Americas.

"These international calls were not made for family reasons," he
said.

He had left the card details in a diary in his home and had "a fair
idea" who had "stolen" them. He believed that details of the card had
then been sold on the blackmarket.

"The people who took it might have been involved in petty hoodlum
crimes, but nothing more," he said.

Mr Amery claims to have shortly afterwards asked Telstra for a
replacement PIN to make the card unusable to those who did not know
it, but the phone carrier had failed to change the number.

"The next thing I knew I had them on the phone saying $14,000 in calls
had been racked up," he said.

Federal police investigated the Amery matter, but found insufficient
evidence to lay charges.

Mr Amery denied that the misuse of his phonecard was similar to the
experience of federal minister Peter Reith, who was forced to repay
$47,000 in calls.

"He actually gave the details to somebody. In my case it was fraud,"
Mr Amery said. "And the taxpayer had funded his use but did not pay my
bill."

At the time Telstra was fully government-owned, but Mr Amery denied
that the write-off of the debt amounted to a debt to the taxpayer.
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