Police allege Phillip Henry Stracey, 46, helped to wipe fingerprints from a vehicle involved in a robbery that resulted in the death of Indonesian migrant Po Cin Lim in 1987.

Ms Lim was standing at the corner of Goulburn and Pitt streets in Sydney's CBD on October 5, 1987, when a man reached out of a passing van and grabbed her handbag.

The 66-year-old was dragged alongside the vehicle for several metres and fell head-first to the kerb.

The van drove off, and Ms Lim died the next day in St Vincent's Hospital.

Two men have been charged with Ms Lim's murder - Phillip Stracey's brother David Gordon Stracey, 48, from Tucabia, and Glen Neil Sparks, 45, formerly of Maroubra in Sydney's east.

Police allege those two men had robbed Ms Lim, resulting in her fall.

Wollongong Local Court today heard that the day after the robbery, Sparks went to Phillip Stracey's house and told him about the robbery.

On October 8 they had gone to Centennial Park in Sydney where the vehicle involved in the robbery had been dumped, and wiped it down for fingerprints.

Detectives from the Unsolved Homicide Team arrested Phillip Stracey at Kadesh House, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in Berkeley, just after 11am yesterday.

He was taken to Port Kembla Police Station where he was charged with being an accessory after the fact to robbery in company, and receiving stolen property.

Magistrate Michael Stoddard today formally refused Phillip Stracey's application for bail due to the seriousness of the charges and his extensive criminal history.

The matter has been adjourned to Central Local Court on February 11.

For full coverage see Saturday's Mercury.