Battling police hiring private investigators - National - smh.com.au: "THE NSW fraud squad is so stretched for resources that it is relying on private investigators to compile briefs of evidence, a Sydney court has heard.
Detective Sergeant Roland Winter, a fraud squad investigator who was giving evidence in a criminal trial this week, said his former boss at the fraud squad had conducted the investigation and taken statements from key witnesses while on sick leave from the police force.
Matthew Douglas Simons, 45, is facing trial over nine counts of dishonestly obtaining almost $700,000 from a fellow parent at Kambala, a private school for girls in Rose Bay.
Sergeant Winter said due to 'resource issues' it was common practice for external investigators, usually former police officers, to investigate frauds and prepare briefs of evidence on behalf of their clients which they then presented to police.
In the Simons case, Sergeant Winter told the court that his former boss, then Detective Inspector Michael Gerondis, had put together the prosecution brief while on sick leave waiting to be discharged from the police force."
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