A Sydney grandfather involved in an international drug and money laundering syndicate that contributed to the downfall of the Wollongong Aerial Patrol has penned a heartfelt letter of apology, blaming ill health and the “lure of adventure” for his crimes.
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Neil Avery was a twice-divorced, aging bricklayer with no savings when an associate approached him in late 2011 with a money-making scheme: launder cash from the associate’s domestic drug dealing ring by purchasing light planes on the international market, which could then be used to smuggle contraband into Australia.
Avery and the man, described in court as a “professional criminal”, recruited Fairy Meadow pilot Bernard Stevermuer, who ran his business Always Airborne, out of Albion Park airport.
Together, the trio organised to buy a plane from the US for $400,000. It was flown to the Phillipines in mid-2014, where Stevermuer and Avery modified it to create a hidden compartment under a false floor, which was packed with contraband and flown undetected into the country in June that year.
The contraband was offloaded in Coffs Harbour before the plane made it’s way to Albion Park airport, where it was raided by police two weeks after landing.
During a subsequent investigation, detectives discovered that Avery, Stevermuer and their associate were looking to expand their business and had already approached Wollongong Aerial Patrol president Harry Mitchell about buying the patrol’s aircraft maintenance and pilot instruction businesses for $1.5 million.
Detectives say the majority of the initial $750,00 payment was traced back to players associated with the domestic drug ring, including $125,000 in cheques attributed to Avery.
The aerial patrol sale eventually fell through and the not-for-profit, rife with allegations of financial mismanagement and fraud, went on to lose it charity status.
Meantime, Avery was arrested in January 2015.
He pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and dealing with property that becomes an instrument of crime during a court appearance last year.
In a handwritten letter tendered in court on Friday, Avery said he was deeply ashamed of what he’d done.
“The frame of mind I was in, the lure of adventure and some monetary rewards clouded my thoughts,” he confessed, but said he had taken up yoga in prison and was acting as a mentor to younger inmates.
“I have taught yoga and meditation in jail with some of the inmates to help get some meaning in their lives,” he said.
“[If] just one person’s life is changed in some small way by me [it] would be worth the years I have spent in jail.”
Avery will be sentenced in August.