JUST as this year’s local racing season was set to commence in Swan Hill, a race fixing scandal has shocked the region.
On Monday morning, Victorian police raided the properties of several of the region’s top harness racing figures in the Mildura region, following an investigation by the Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit (SIIU) and Mildura Crime Investigation Unit (CIU) into allegations of race fixing in local harness racing.
Five people were arrested, including a 29-year-old Merbein man, a 57-year-old Birdwoodton man, a 54-year-old Bolinda man, a 52-year-old Irymple man and a 34-year-old Mildura man.
The Merbein and Birdwoodton men were both charged with engaging in conduct that corrupted a betting outcome and other offences, while the other three men were released on bail to appear in Mildura Magistrates’ Court on May 6.
The arrests came just a week before the official launch of the racing season at the Swan Hill Racecourse next Tuesday.
Local racing authority Murray Mallee Racing said the investigations would not impact on the sport locally as no one from Swan Hill had been implicated in the investigations.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (February 4).
