Children's Charity Founder Faces $8m Raffle-rigging Charges
The Age
Thursday January 17, 2002
The founder of a Melbourne children's charity was charged yesterday with rigging luxury car raffles worth up to $8 million.
Lawrence Shannon, 48, of Stinsons Road, Park Orchards, faced 51 charges in the Melbourne Magistrate's Court relating to raffles run for his Kids at Sea charity.
A former director of the charity, Bill Horizidis, 35, of Lower Templestowe, who is Mr Shannon's brother-in-law, has been charged with 11 similar offences.
Police allege that of 32 raffles run by Kids at Sea in recent years, 28 were won by Mr Shannon under an assumed name, or by his associates.
Mr Shannon is also charged with dishonestly obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars by creating false loans from himself to Kids at Sea.
Another charge, of failing to pay a prize winner, relates to a raffle last year at which police were present at the draw.
Mr Shannon entered no plea and was remanded by magistrate Paul Grant for a bail hearing today.
Prosecutor Mark Regan said police would oppose bail because Mr Shannon presented an unacceptable risk of committing similar offences and of failing to reappear in court because of the seriousness of the charges.
He said the organised crime squad expected to lay further charges against Mr Shannon relating to Kids at Sea.
Mr Shannon, a former real estate developer and Toorak Road restaurateur, said nothing during his brief appearance in the dock.
He was represented by barrister Jack Hammond, QC, and solicitor Mark Caldwell.
The charity was set up in 1995 by Mr Shannon, who said its purpose was to help disadvantaged youth through the discipline of learning to sail.
It entered the $1million Nelson-Marek designed yacht Young Australia in the Sydney-Hobart race, finishing sixth in 1997. Kids at Sea vessels have since competed successfully in major Victorian yachting competitions on Port Phillip Bay.
Among organisations that participated in Kids at Sea programs was the Odyssey House drug rehabilitation centre.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission records show that Mr Shannon and his wife Helen were paid more than $100,000 a year as directors of the charity.
It was financed by raffles of luxury cars, including Porsches, Lotuses and Lamborghinis, which were advertised nationally.
The Age was unable to establish whether a current raffle being run by Kids at Sea would be suspended.
It is believed police last year asked the Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority to withdraw raffle permits from the charity but the authority declined.
A spokeswoman for the Victorian Casino and Gaming Authority did not return calls yesterday.
© 2002 The Age