Grossly incompetent NSW police

A FORMER high-flying Sydney accountant who police were hunting for five years over a multimillion dollar fraud has been found by his alleged victims living on the Gold Coast.

Mofid Bebawy set a real estate record when he paid almost $7 million for a mansion at Blakehurst in Sydney's south in 2003, only to be declared bankrupt three years later.

He faced Southport Magistrates Court today for an extradition hearing on 10 counts of passing more than $2 million in valueless cheques. The court was told the former Bankstown accountant allegedly repaid investors in his business with cheques that later bounced.

NSW police have been [NOT] hunting him since he left Sydney soon after his practice failed and thought he had fled to Egypt. They resorted to Facebook searches to try to find him, and arrested him only after investors tracked him down.

Defence lawyer Chris Nyst told the court it was a case of amateurish police work, as Mr Bebawy had been living on the Gold Coast with his wife of 23 years and four children and working in his son's accountancy practice.

Mr Nyst said Mr Bebawy had been reporting to his bankruptcy trustee and had a driver's licence showing his Gold Coast address. "To say that police couldn't find him and had to rely on some civilian assistance to find this man is at least something of an indictement on the competency of the NSW police," he told the court. "This is not a man who is fleeing from anybody or trying to live undercover."

Mr Nyst opposed the extradition but it was granted and Mr Bebawy was placed in the custody of NSW detectives for a flight back to Sydney, where he was due to face Bankstown Local Court this afternoon.

SOURCE