The District Court trial of five people accused of a million-dollar gold swindle in Western Australia's Goldfields has been told that "they stole that pile of dirt" known as a "clean-up pile".
Patrick Ryhan Keogh, 42, the former general manager of FMR Investments, which owns the Greenfields Mill near Coolgardie, is among the accused, alongside two of his former subordinates and two directors of a privately-owned earthmoving and haulage company.
The group is accused of stealing 8,465 tonnes of gold ore from the Greenfields Mill between December 2018 and January 2019.
The gold ore had an estimated value of $1.17 million based on gold prices at the time.
It is alleged the group then transferred money from processing the ore into bank accounts which they could access.
Mr Keogh and Christopher Robert Burns, 75, of Geographe, have both pleaded not guilty to stealing as a servant, and charges that they engaged directly or indirectly in a transaction that involved money that is the proceeds of an offence.
Morgan Whitney Dombroski, 33, of Boulder, is fighting charges of stolen or unlawfully obtained property, and engaging in a transaction involving money that is the proceeds of an offence.
Russell Wilson Holden, 51, and Simon Leslie Gash, 57, who are both listed as directors of KBD Haulage Pty Ltd and also operate private company Aqua Alluvial together, are also fighting various money laundering and fraud charges.
All five of the accused entered pleas of not guilty to the various charges.
'That's big money': prosecutor
During his opening address, state prosecutor Paul Usher told the court that FMR Investments had not given permission for the group to use the clean-up pile, which was leftover ore from previous milling campaigns.
At the time Mr Keogh was the most senior of the group, followed by Mr Burns the mill manager, and Ms Dombroski who was mill foreman.
The court heard Mr Holden and Mr Gash wanted to process some of their own gold-bearing ore from a Coolgardie mine but did not have enough, so the decision was made to use the clean-up pile to supplement it.
Mr Usher told the court it was "very unusual" and "not best practice" to process ore simultaneously with another company's ore.
"How do you determine whose gold is whose?" he said.
Mr Usher said the prosecution cannot prove how much gold was in the clean-up pile.
"We simply don't know," he said.
But he alleged the payments to Mr Keogh and Mr Burns represented exactly 25 per cent of the profits from the milling campaign, which treated 16,931 tonnes of ore between December 27, 2018, and January 7, 2019.
In total, 1,881 ounces was sold to the Perth Mint, Mr Usher said.
He told the court that FMR Investments took $831,000 to cover its costs and $2.5 million was transferred to Aqua Alluvial, which he said later made payments of $587,291 each to Mr Keogh and Mr Burns.
"They were the insiders who had access to the clean-up pile," he said.
"That money should have gone to FMR, but they stole that pile of dirt.
"You've [the jury] heard the numbers … that's big money."
The court was told Mr Burns gave Ms Dombroski $90,000 out of his $587,291 payment.
The court heard police found text messages from Mr Burns to Mr Gash asking him to organise the payment, saying in a message "it would have been difficult to ron (sic) the project without her [Ms Dombroski]".
"She was taking a cut of Mr Burns' share," Mr Usher said.
The court heard police found $5,050 in $50 notes in a safe in her bedroom, and that she had spent most of the $90,000 on home improvements, including installing air conditioning, and that she took six months off work to spend with her son.
Mr Usher will finish his opening address when the trial resumes tomorrow.
Long list of witnesses
Earlier, today, the prosecution's list of eight witnesses was revealed as a 16-member jury was empanelled.
Judge Christopher Stevenson told the court that he estimated the trial would last at least four weeks.
Among the witnesses to be called are Detective Sergeant Chris King and Detective Senior Constable Andy Kettle of the Kalgoorlie-based Gold Stealing Detection Unit.
The case is one of the largest brought by the century-old gold squad in a decade.
Well-known Kalgoorlie businessman Peter Bartlett, who founded FMR Investments in 1989, will also be called to testify alongside the company's general manager John Farr.
Well-known Perth lawyer Tom Percy KC is acting for Mr Burns.
Mr Keogh has engaged the services of lawyer Seamus Rafferty, while Carmel McKenzie is acting for Ms Dombroski.
Mr Holden and Mr Gash have Paul Yovich SC and David Grace KC, respectively, acting on their behalf.
Earlier today, Judge Stevenson ordered a lawyer for FMR Investments, who was sitting at the back of the courtroom auditing the trial, not to divulge any information about the proceedings to his employer, Mr Bartlett.
Witnesses are not allowed inside the courtroom until they give evidence.
Mr Rafferty brought the situation to the court's attention, saying his concern was FMR Investments' lawyer may report back to Mr Bartlett which "could prejudice the conduct of the trial".
FMR Investments uses the Greenfields Mill to process gold from the company's Gordon Sirdar mine near Kalgoorlie and other mining companies and professional prospectors in the Goldfields region.
