An online love scam that jailed a mum for five years — An Innocent Abroad: Pt 2 | Australian Story

[Music] hello I'm Belinda Hawkins one of the producers here at Australian story tonight part two of my program about the fate of Yosh a tailor whose friendship with a man called precious max ended in a Cambodian jail cell Yoshi always claimed she was the victim of an online scam her plight went unnoticed until a chance meeting sparked the interest of a tenacious law graduate and as you'll see what happened to Yoshi a tailor also raises questions about the role Australian authorities played in her case but first a recap precious Max was living in Phnom Penh with his girlfriend Charlene Savarino and both of them were part of an international drug syndicate who were operating to lure Australian men and women to travel to Cambodia to bring drugs back into Australia I thought I got to know him and he seemed very nice he knew I was looking for work precious max asks Yoshi to work in Brisbane importing Cambodian arts and crafts he was a gentleman who was very busy running several intimate relationships online at the same time I didn't know anything about camera the first night we were there he proposed marriage to me just thought this was a dream come true kay arrives back in Melbourne unbeknownst to her she proceeds through security carrying just over two kilos of heroin in her bag on the last day of Yoshi's third trip Charlene provides her with a backpack containing Cambodian fabrics small Cambodian man called my name he cut down the spine at the bag and that was when I saw the powder and it was heroin I was charged with international drug smuggling and I had no idea what would happen [Music] shortly after she was arrested mom called us and it was really sad she cried and I was just telling her that she loves us and she'll hope she look she sees us soon and it was pretty sad especially because we never got a call after that [Music] I was put in a room with 99 women it was about 15 meters by 5 meters there were three toilets in a two meter by one meter space at one end no wall no curtains no plumbing after three weeks I was moved to the police jurisdiction prison has the major headquarters of the police outside it's only very small the embassy gives you a list of lawyers and I didn't know who to ask for it was just like you pull a lawyer out of your hat and hope that you've got one that will help you I wonder if I could have stopped her from going over there but I don't think she would have listened to me no thanks I was a pastor not the future I'm not in any financial position to be able to get any sort of flights overseas let alone hotels and you know all the other bits and pieces that are involved I couldn't do it for myself let alone the family of three but I didn't know what would happen cuz we don't come from a family with money [Music] my brother found someone who had experience with people who had been put in jails in foreign countries dran mostly and he had helped them get home I come from a security background it was a contractual agreement but at a very very low cost because I had no idea what we could achieve over the next few months like Ross was there all the time and he helped me emotionally cope and he helped me physically with what I needed to do to survive [Music] why did to find out that Australian police were working on this case directly with the Cambodian transnational police I knew that the two were working very close together and had been for some time [Music] Ross found out that when they arrested precious they found another two kilos of heroin in his house and the purity was the exact same percentage of the Perelman that was in my bag and he found out the passport that I'd been sent was a fake passport I was able to get a full police check nationwide police check here in Australia to verify that she had never been arrested never had done any wrongdoing in the past so all these things that I was obtaining just didn't fit it didn't fit a profile of a person who was involved as a drug trafficker or a you know a consenting mule but I only ever seen my lawyer once I didn't really know what to expect from court [Music] you have to sit with the case partners and I didn't want to sit with them precious was supposed to be my friend he never spoke clearly or out loud he just whispered to his translator and the translator spoke so I have no idea of what he said Charlene was from a French Italian background French national 19 years of age she tried to blame it all on me she said that I had the bag for a couple of hours in between going to the airport and when she had dropped it to me and I was really lucky because the policeman who cut the bag open he went up straight after her and he said that it was professionally sewn it would have taken professional equipment and I didn't have that in my hotel room that you couldn't tell with the naked eye that there was something inside it so after all of that I thought there was a chance that something good might come out of it but yo J's initial lawyer wasn't very experienced at all she would have needed a lawyer that was high-profile but she couldn't afford it and this was a this was a major problem the verdict was in May 2014 and I had no translator they just spoke and then they wanted us to stamp a page and leave I was like I don't want us thumbprint I don't know what's been said that no know what's going on but they insisted and I thumbprint it and then the embassy lady followed us down the stairs and she came up to me and told me that I got in 23 years precious was given 27 years and Charlene was given 25 years I did not want to spend 23 years away from my children I feel like that it's just causing them pain wanting like hoping that I'm coming home and that they would be better off if I wasn't here anymore because at least then they could more to get over it I actually thought the death penalty was a much better idea than being in jail for 23 years unfortunately the financial situation for Yoshi's family had basically dried up if they couldn't support me being there any longer so I came back home and I stopped eating not because I was on hunger strike I wasn't I stopped eating because I was I couldn't eat I didn't I didn't feel hungry I didn't feel anything I just get I had no hope in early 2015 I received a brief for a woman known to carry and it was a brief that involved bringing 2 kilos or so of um heroin into Australia after Kay was arrested she was taken off to a women's prison I spent six months and don't feel asana that was the scariest experience I've ever had being in jail really unsure what my future held I met her about a month before her case was to go to trial understandably at that point she was very anxious about how the case was going to unfold I was looking at long you know big trial probably looking at toy he's in jail I [Music] certainly felt that Kay had a good defense she had no knowledge and no intention but there is never a guarantee with a jury trial [Music] in late March 2015 we received great news that the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions was not proceeding with the trial against K it seemed that they realized all the evidence pointed to K been an innocent agent and she was free woman I was aesthetic I just burst into tears it makes me tear up just thinking about it gave me back on the lawn he might have taken my path but I won't allow him to take my future I won't allow precious to steal what any more of me after Kay had gone on her way usually what barristers do is they put a ribbon around the brief and they send it back to the solicitor and they clear some way for some more folders on their shelf but there was something about Kay's motto I could not send it back to the solicitor we had spent quite a bit of time Kay and I talking about precious Max and during those conversations she told me that she believed there was a woman by the name of Yoshi and Taylor who had been arrested attempting to leave Cambodia with almost the same amount of heroin and she assumed that there was a connection with precious Max I kept thinking surely I'm going to stumble across somebody in Queensland who's working on this woman's plight there must be a bevy of lawyers working around the clock but she had just fallen off the radar [Music] in 2016 I was undertaking practical legal training after completing my law degree and I did it with felt done QC in Luke's case he he was an enthusiast he shattered me around the traps from case to case we would often have lunch together and this particular day it just happened to be with another barrister called Moyer Brian I was telling you about she had these concerns that there may be this case in Cambodia that was related to the matter she had just worked on you think there's another one we claimed together great really I didn't have anything other than Kay's case and an inkling to prove that this woman was innocent I think we need to try and do more research on it but really I I just don't know where to start as luck would have it Luke told me that he'd also been an investigative journalist this conversation was one of those synchronistic events because a lot has happened since Luke first heard about that woman lost alone and forgotten [Music] when I originally got Kay Smith's brief and then I obtained Yoshi Taylor's prosecution cambodian prosecution documents I was looking for similarities between the two briefs reading the cambodian documents I actually found a copy of case Smith's passport her passport could only have come from the Australian authorities because K Smith was arrested in Australia and that was my aha moment it was it was unequivocal that their two cases were absolutely linked and to my horror they were using case Anita's case to actually argue Yoshi was guilty even though Kay Smith's case had already been discontinued no one had ever updated the Cambodian authorities Luke was text messaging me the very next day he was so captured by this story we both realized there were a number of striking similarities between Kay's case and Yoshi's case the amounts of heroin were both around the true kilo amount the manner in which it was secreted in the bags was very similar but there was something else the Cambodian prosecution brief also contained the passport of an Australian man we had no idea who this man was little did we know he was going to become a very important piece of the puzzle I then needed to find out who's Yosh a tailor who is this woman was she tripped Luke called me a few days later and he said I'm going to Cambodia I've booked tickets to Cambodia I just couldn't believe the tenacity and courage that he showed leaving his child and partner at home and going off on this mission which I actually perceived as quite dangerous two kilos of heroin is worth a lot of money so my synopsis of the situation was that this was a powerful drug cartel that was operating out of pen on pen I certainly didn't know what dangers there might be if they found out that he was visiting your O'Shea in the prison they bought Yoshi out and the first thing that struck me was she just lost an amazing amount of weight so much hurt so that she was almost unrecognizable I've been three years a mushroom by that stage Luke seemed very sincere he seemed to care he seemed to want to help there was very much a penny drop moment when Luke discovered that the person that you're Shay had been speaking to and the person that Kay had been speaking to not only were they both African men they both had on their chests a tattoo of a lion so we knew at that moment we had the same man so we're going to precious max we're precious max was arrested and it's where he lives so a lot of the photos online they're taken inside this apartment building it's a bit off the beaten track so a bit nervous about heading down here it's a dead-end street yeah so this is it this is where he was arrested we're being watched so I can bust a move what I needed from Yoshi was access to her online accounts when I did it data dump from her Facebook I was able to read not just the messages she was having between her herself and precious max but also the others of the friends that she that she'd been discussing the opportunities that precious Max had been offering her I went out to visit the addresses listed on the employment contract provided T O'Shea allegedly in a showroom for a business and I KN n terms of employment since like you know they're gonna give her a job looking at it globally you were able to get a much better picture that the story that she was telling was was truthful nothing really artsy about it I told him at that point that there was another girl I had been told through the grapevine inside that this lady had been caught in Australia and that she had been tricked by precious even though he was in jail so I I wanted someone to find out who she was so we had another case of a young mother who was arrested in Australia flying back from Cambodia same amount of drugs her case was discontinued as as was Kay Smith's in the same manner I can recall taking a call from Luke when he was in Cambodia and Luke told me there was another woman and I started googling the other woman the mum of three betrayed by the man she loved he used her as an unsuspecting drug mule they brought the case in and they started drilling it in front of the white powder come out and lo and behold I came across a video from a TV interview this woman had done and there was a picture flashed up on my screen of precious Max with the lion tattoo him sitting with his shirt off which is common most of his photos he's a world built go ahead but in the background he actually see the prison bars of Ken Dayle prison where he is family located and where he was operating from [Music] Yoshio Taylor didn't have any Australian legal representation and they concerned me this time the prosecutor mentioned that I could have been a victim he actually said Charlene and I could have been a victim what seemed to go really well I think the police really tried to do the right thing today in the hearing but she lost at that point she was pretty desperate and what do you think about people who might think that you're guilty there's so many people who have been tricked I'm not the only one to be tricked I've found the situation to be absurd have you got a message to your family I love you [Music] late 2016 Luke arrived back in Melbourne and we realized we had to find Yoshi an Australian lawyer and we had to find one fast when we are asked whether I could assist in Yoshi shows case I was somewhat reluctant the Bali Nine were arrested in Indonesia in 2005 after a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police I was part of a legal team trying to assist Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran on their final appeal against the death penalty the families of Meyer and sukumaran and Andrew Chan are tonight mourning their deaths and that case took an incredible toll on me personally but I ultimately agreed to assist O'Shea Taylor in the time between when Myron and Andrew were executed and when Moya rang me in late 2016 I myself had had a daughter and I could not imagine what yo she must be going through being separated from her two children she was going to work for free because I didn't have any money and I knew I needed help we were really facing an incredibly difficult task to try and convince the court that Yoshi really did not know the drugs were in that bag the turning point in the case came when we found out who the male was that was in Deshaies prosecution dossier he had come into Australia from Cambodia with two kilos of heroin he had no knowledge of the drugs that were hidden in his bag and no intention to bring those drugs into Australia that male had been tricked into traveling to Cambodia by Sharlee and Savarino she was operating the exact same scam as precious Max was with the Australian females she was operating with Australian men the man who was drawn into this whole web wasn't as lucky as Kay he had to stand trial fortunately for him he was ultimately found not guilty by jury what that case showed us was that Charlene suberino had been operating at the same level as precious Max and this was completely contrary to what she had been telling authorities throughout the trial that she had been tricked and did not know that the drugs were within that bag [Music] so in Australia we'd had a situation where one case had been discontinued in Melbourne that's K Smith a man had been found not guilty and a third young single mother of three had also been discovered and had her case discontinued she also provided a long statement to the Australian Federal Police detailed statement so they were aware it was the same guy precious max yet nothing got back to Cambodia they were never updated as to the status of those three Australian cases it's unfortunate that that information wasn't provided to your Shae and her lawyers as soon as it was available because it could have avoided her staying in that prison which in my view was shocking you know I don't understand it I really don't understand because they've you know they had a liaison officer aeryn been on pen the Australian authorities including the Federal Police will not intervene in cases in foreign countries even though it may be the information they've provided that has seen an Australian be arrested I am worried that perhaps their conduct has put an innocent woman in great danger [Music] [Music] the supreme quality the last date she's charged with the drug case there's some slight chance of success Alex Wilson engaged a new local lawyer from from Langley not see any return of that and they prepared an appeal based primarily on the Avenue evidence that had been discovered in June 2018 yoshi's appealed to the supreme court which is the highest court in Cambodia heard her case and ultimately the court found that there was not enough evidence to prove that Yoshio had knowledge that the drugs were in the bag and the court quashed her conviction she'd won and it Ford me actually I was absolutely floored but I knew that it wasn't over the Supreme Court was remitted very case back to the Court of Appeal everyone was saying to me you're gonna go home by this stage though I was not wanting to have hope I was looking at worst-case scenarios I was making plans about what would happen if they did the sentence again which were not very nice plans I'm heading over on Tuesday and the hearings Friday there's a lot of uncertainty around what's gonna happen well here we are again yeah I'm so scared that she's just gonna end up being there for the next like 20 years of my life well we don't get to see her and pulled her and she's alone and stuff no keep you updated I can't really say to you clearly and much I appreciate everything you've been doing no I'm not all right this would be my sixth time to Cambodia it's not a place that I've enjoyed being in it's exhausting but at the same time I feel that I owe it to your show to see her receive some form of justice [Music] the day before Yoshi a searing she's really anxious about tomorrow she doesn't know what's happening I think she's afraid that this is the end in the sense this is the end of she may end up being there for a lot of years [Music] [Applause] on the 19th of April we had the verdicts for the ria pill and i had to stand up at the front again and they talked about all the evidence my translator kept saying the word tricksters and then the judge said that the prosecutor had written a letter saying that he also supported the judges looking at a not guilty judge and I was very conflicted I was kept filling my hopes rising kept trying to quash it don't just wait just wait don't don't you might misunderstand you might be misunderstanding and then he said that I was not guilty and free free and did I have anything to say and I said I'll conjure ed with joins thank you [Music] it's very happy that's finally everybody know that she's innocent and the court may both here also understand that she's innocent [Music] I've got good news for you your mum won today so anyway she's coming home pretty soon really soon and your mum's like over the moon really happy I want to just like no mention of it on the internet and stuff till she's actually out of the country don't want to upset the apple cart over here I'm happy about it but I'm also worried about you know how she'll take how the worlds change still it's just even if we don't know how long it'll take it's good to know she'll be back soon in May I receive the best text message I've ever received in my life I was sent a photo by the cambodian lawyer of both yoshi and him standing outside the prison she'd finally been released [Music] shortly thereafter I receive a series of photographs showing Yoshi at the airport about to board the plane and I knew we'd won [Music] after all these years of work she was finally free and she was going to return home to see her two children and that was the greatest victory I've ever had in any case and I think it probably will be the greatest victory I ever have [Music] without the intervention of a law student and lawyers this woman rot and die in jail it shouldn't be a chance conversation that leads to somebody being helped and it's in a way sad that we have to call upon lawyers to do it for nothing and we shouldn't abandon our citizens [Music] my dream like what I really want to happen is we just live normally I guess just live like how everyone else does do something I knew for us a returning to Australia would be the most amazing thing for her to be reunited with her children but I also knew that this was going to be an incredibly difficult time for her she doesn't have a house anymore her children have grown up without her being around and she now needs to rebuild all those bridges and find her place I have heard people talk about Australians as being easy to scam and I don't want us to become scared but and I want us to be able to protect ourselves have some empathy for people who are in situations that we can't really imagine unless you've been there if one person is is protected because they've seen the story of myself like if it can save one other astray I'll be really happy [Music] you you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 1,153,501

Rating: 4.7913213 out of 5

Keywords: Australia, Yoshe Taylor, Moya O’Brien, Alex Wilson, Luke McMahon, Cambodia, Cambodian prisoner, Cambodia prison system, drug trafficking, drug mule, online scam, love scam, internet dating scam, drug syndicate, drugs in prison, drugs at airport, airport drug smuggling, airport drug trafficking, prison in Cambodia, Australian Federal Police, AFP, news, abc news, abc, australian story, online dating, internet dating, online relationship, online fraud, cybercrime

Id: wseW9hhI36U

Length: 36min 17sec (2177 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 19 2019