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A Victorian construction sector consultancy founded by a former CFMEU delegate and ex-bikie boss has been raided by the police taskforce targeting corruption and crime in Victoria’s construction sector.
Former Mongols bikie gang boss Tyrone “Little Ty” Bell set up his so-called industrial relations consultancy Dynamis Health Safety Relations in November 2024, after he was sacked as a CFMEU representative amid the fall-out of this masthead’s Building Bad series.
Bell also recruited ex-CFMEU organiser Jaxson Mahy to help him run Dynamis and offered leading Victorian construction companies, including Big Build sub-contractors, a means of negotiating with the CFMEU while it remained under administration.
Bell’s transition from union delegate to industry consultant was previously revealed by this masthead as evidence of how gangland linked figures were adapting to efforts by authorities to clean up the sector.
On Thursday morning, Victoria Police’s Taskforce Hawk raided several properties associated with Bell and Dynamis as part of what police said was “an investigation into a series of alleged financial offences”.
“Warrants were executed at residential addresses in Wandin East, Seville, Officer South, Richmond and the Melbourne CBD early this morning and no arrests were made,” police said in a statement.
“Police are investigating financial based offending and false accounting by a company which is believed to be acting as a debt collection company operating under the guise of industrial relations.
“Detectives seized a number of items, including financial documents, a number of mobile phones as well as laptops and other electronic devices.”
The raids by Taskforce Hawk illustrate the way police are working around significant legislative gaps, which they said — in an exclusive interview with The Age on Tuesday — needed to be closed to allow them to more effectively combat alleged wrongdoing in the construction sector.
In that interview, police called for new laws that would ban bikie gang-linked figures from operating as union fixers or debt collectors. Police have been calling on the state government for such laws for over a decade.
On Monday, Transport Infrastructure Minister Gabrielle Williams wrote to Big Build contractors, noting “alarming reports regarding the questionable use of industrial mediators or ‘fixers’” and flagged that the government would establish a mandatory register of approved industrial relations consultants and mediators.
The head of Taskforce Hawk, Detective Superintendent Dave Cowan, also said on Tuesday that the force was powerless to combat much of the wrongdoing that was being perpetrated on the Big Build because it was outside the remit of state police.
State detectives are powerless to target gangland figures or allegedly corrupt firms for paying or receiving huge sums of money to guarantee preferential access to the Big Build or privately funded major projects.
Because of this, Taskforce Hawk has instead analysed the accounting practices and driving records of their targets and then raided them over alleged false accounting, as in the case of Bell, or suspected speeding ticket demerit fraud, in the case of the recent raid of Mick Gatto’s home.
The bulk of charges laid by Hawk involve relatively minor offending, save for extortion charges laid against former CFMEU Big Build official Joel Leavitt, who is also the boss of the Bandidos bikie gang.
In a statement released on Thursday, police said the taskforce was “focused on assessing new intelligence and evidence relating to allegations of criminal behaviour linked to the construction industry.”
“[The taskforce] also continues to proactively target organised crime associated with the sector, including a focus on any individuals employed within the construction industry who have known links to outlaw motorcycle gangs.”
Bell could not be reached but has previously denied wrongdoing.
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Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email.From our partners
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