Non-Raceday Inquiry – M Cameron

Decision: --

This is the decision of the Judicial Committee hearing charges against Licensed Jockey Matthew Cameron at Te Rapa on the 18^th of December 2007.

Mr Matthew Cameron faces three charges preferred by Thoroughbred Racing New Zealand.

DECISION OF JUDICIAL COMMITTEE

This is the decision of the Judicial Committee hearing charges against Licensed Jockey Matthew Cameron at Te Rapa on the 18^th of December 2007.

Mr Matthew Cameron faces three charges preferred by Thoroughbred Racing New Zealand.

The first of these is laid under Rule 1001 (1) (k) and alleges in summary that he gave evidence at Otaki-Maori Racing Club, on 29 November 2007, which was false.

The second allegation is that he did commit a second breach of the same Rule 1001 (1) (k) - that is the rule which defines what are called Serious Racing Offences, in that he did produce an altered receipt for car repairs to the Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr Cameron George, which document was false.

The third allegation is that he did breach Rule 520 (4) (a) in that he failed to fulfil his riding engagement on CUGINI in a race at Te Aroha on 28th November this year.

Mr Cameron has pleaded guilty to all three charges. For the sake of completeness those full charges are set out in an appendix to this judgement.

It is necessary to outline in summary the facts presented to the Judicial Committee by Mr George. On 28^th November there was racing at Te Aroha. CUGINIi was the only mount which Mr Cameron had on that day. He contacted persons in the stable who in turn contacted the Stipendiary Stewards and said that he could not fulfil that riding obligation because he had "transport difficulties". Stipendiary Stewards on duty that day contacted Mr Cameron who told them that his motor vehicle had broken down in Morrinsville and was being fixed at a garage in that town. There were races next day, 29^th November, at Otaki. Mr John Oatham, Stipendiary Steward, required Mr Cameron to produce a receipt for the motor vehicle repairs on that day at that race meeting. The next day at Otaki Mr Cameron was asked for the receipt. He first said it was in his car and that he hadn’t actually brought his own car to the races but had got a ride with another jockey, Cameron Lammas. He indicated that his own car would be arriving at the course later in the day and that he would then produce the receipt. Later in the day Mr Cameron was seen in civilian clothes about to depart the racecourse, and was asked about the receipt. He said that his car had not yet arrived and that his cousin would be coming with the car later in the day. When further asked he said he was going to be meeting up with his cousin in New Plymouth.

Following this advice to Mr George, directions were given to make enquiries of the garage in Morrinsville. This was done by Stipendiary Steward Mr Alan Coles. Mr George explained that Mr Coles and Mr Cameron spent a considerable period of time on the telephone endeavouring to locate the garage in Morrinsville that had undertaken the repairs. Mr Cameron had told Mr Coles that he couldn’t remember the name of the garage and hence the need to ring around a series of garage operators. The garage that had been said to have undertaken the repairs could not be located.

Mr George then directed Mr Cameron that he was to fax the receipt for the repairs that same evening. On 30^th November Mr George checked the position and no receipt had been received. Eventually Mr George made contact with Mr Cameron at about 3 o’clock on 30^th November, Mr Cameron told him that he could not fax the receipt the previous night but that he had now just done so. When Mr George received the receipt, which I take it was at NZTR Headquarters in Petone, he looked carefully at the document and was immediately concerned by what he saw. There were three concerns :

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1. The name on the receipt was not Matthew Cameron, but rather Mr M Follas.
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2. The garage was not in Morrinsville, but in Cambridge.
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3. There was no date on the receipt.
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This document has been produced to the hearing at Exhibit 1.

Mr George made enquiries of the garage in Cambridge, Keyte Automotive, and asked that they send a copy of the original receipt to him. When this was received it was seen to be different from the document faxed by Mr Cameron. It had a date on the right hand side – 28/3/07. A copy of that document has been produced as Exhibit 2.

Mr George rang Mr Cameron and asked about this state of affairs. In the course of this conversation Mr Cameron acknowledged that he had tampered with the document – that is to say the first invoice, the one without any date. He told Mr George that he had "dug himself into a big hole". He said he wanted to come clean about it. He admitted to Mr George that he had not been at Te Aroha on 28^th November because he had left it too late to depart Cambridge for the racecourse.

Mr Cameron was asked by the Committee for his explanation. He had no issue with what Mr George had recounted and said "that’s pretty much as it was". Questions of Mr Cameron established that the horse CUGINI was engaged in a race at 3:08 on the afternoon of the 28^th November. Mr Cameron had ridden the horse in track work. The trainer was Mr Roger James. The horse had done good track work and was expected to show well on race day. A replacement rider, Michael Coleman, was engaged and it happened that the horse won the race.

Both Mr George and Mr Cameron were asked to make submissions on the question of the appropriate penalties in respect of the charges before the Committee. It was Mr George’s submission that the position was very serious. He said that Mr Cameron has misled officials and he identified three particular aggravating considerations which he said were of concern. These were :

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1. That Mr Cameron had persistently misled NZTR officials, in particular Mr Coles, when the enquiries were being made for the garage in Morrinsville when, in fact, as is now known, no repair had been undertaken in Morrinsville on 28^th November. Mr George pointed out that Mr Cameron had kept up this deceit with Mr Coles over an extended period.
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2. That a false receipt had been produced. In the view of the Committee this is a particularly serious aspect of the matter. In the civil courts the production of a document of this kind, for the purposes of obtaining some pecuniary advantage or avoiding some penalty that might otherwise be imposed, could lead to the charge of forgery or a charge of fraudulently using a document for the purposes of obtaining some pecuniary advantage. Those are serious criminal allegations if they happen to be laid. It is not suggested that they should be here but the circumstances are analogous to cases of that kind which come before the courts.
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3. The third matter which Mr George identified was that the connections and the trainer of the horse had been misled. The explanation which they had been given as to why their chosen jockey did not appear was simply untrue, and of course that untruth had been persisted with over some three days.
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Mr Cameron for his part, acknowledged that he understood that a disqualification was likely. He explained that he had been in Cambridge for about a year, having moved from the Central Districts. It is clear that he gets good rides from the stables of Mr James, Mr Murray Baker and Mr Paul Duncan. On Friday last he suffered an injury to his hand at the Tauranga races. He explained to the Committee that in the ordinary course of events that might have kept him from racing for two or three weeks.

There are a limited number of occasions when matters as serious as this have come before Judicial Committees. Mr George referred the Committee to a number of decisions and the Committee has undertaken its own research. The two cases which in the view of this Committee are most closely comparable to the present are the case involving the leading trainer Mark Walker, which was decided in August 2000, and secondly, the case involving the licensed trainer Andrew Scott which was decided by a Judicial Committee sitting at Te Rapa in February 2005. The latter case involved the trainer providing misleading written advice to a stipendiary steward concerning the qualifications or otherwise of a horse to be permitted to race in blinkers. In consequence of the enquiries made by the stipendiary steward it was ascertained that the written material provided in the document put forward by the trainer was false and he was charged with two offences, one under Rule 868 (5) and one under Rule 1001 (1) (k), both alleging serious breaches.

The present case is, in the view of this Committee, more serious than that involving the licensed trainer Andrew Scott, to which reference has just been made. The reasons for that are in this case Mr Cameron persisted with the untruths and deceit over a period of several days. It seems clear to the Committee that if it had not been for the persistence and vigilance of Mr George, that deceit might very well have succeeded in obscuring the true position. Further, in allowing the officials of NZTR to waste time and energy in pursuing an enquiry about repairs to a car which had never in fact taken place, involved Mr Cameron in dishonesty over an extended period. In those circumstances the Committee takes the view that a significant penalty must be imposed. For Mr Cameron, the best that can be said is that eventually he owned up to what had been going on but it has to be said that this was late in the piece and only after he was confronted with the advice that the original of the receipt did not match the altered document which he had put forward. Today Mr Cameron has been frank with the Committee about his offending but that does little to detract from the matters to which we have just referred.

There are three charges and the Committee deals with these in the order in which they are set out in the charge sheet of 4^th December 2007, which is the same order as they appear in the appendix.

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1. On the first charge of giving false evidence at Otaki-Maori Racing Club on 29th November under Rule 1001 (1) (k) Mr Cameron will be suspended for two months. That suspension will take immediate effect.
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2. On the second charge of altering a receipt in respect of the car repairs said to have been undertaken at Morrinsville on 28^th November 2007, this charge also laid under Rule 1001 (1) (k), Mr Cameron will be disqualified for a period of six months. That disqualification will have immediate effect and is concurrent with the suspension in respect of charge 1.
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3. In respect of this charge, being a breach of Rule 520 (4) (a), Mr Cameron is fined $300.
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4. There is an issue as to costs. Mr George has been required to fly from Wellington and in consequence of that NZTR have incurred expenses. Likewise the JCA. The Chairman of the Committee is based in Rotorua and Mr Holland in Stratford. In those circumstances, there will be costs in favour of NZTR of $275, and costs in favour of the JCA of $450. The figure in respect of the JCA would have been greater but for the fact that the members of the Committee have other business to do at this venue today. The suspension and disqualification as I have noted, take immediate effect.
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Murray McKechnie

Chairman

Charge 1 : that, being a licensed jockey, at an enquiry conducted by the Stipendiary Stewards, at the race meeting being conducted by the Otaki Maori Racing Club on 29^th November 2007, you did give evidence, namely that you had a receipt from a service station in Morrinsville where your car had been repaired on the 28^th November 2007, and further that such occurrence had resulted in you stating you were not able to fulfil your riding engagements at the race meeting conducted by the Te Aroha Jockey Club on the 28^th November, and that in respect to both issues you wilfully made false statements about matters connected with racing, in breach of the provisions of Rule 1001 (1) (k) of the said Rules, and that you are liable to the penalty or penalties which may be imposed upon you pursuant to Role 1001 (2) of the New Zealand Rules of Racing.

Charge 2 : that, being a licensed jockey, you did supply a falsified document, namely an altered receipt in respect to the repairs to your car which you claimed had been repaired in Morrinsville on Wednesday 28^th November 2007, knowing the contents of such document to be false, to Chief Stipendiary Steward Cameron George, for him to act upon in an enquiry that related to a matter connected with racing, and that you did thereby commit a breach of the provisions of Rule 1001 (1) (k) of the said Rules, and that you are liable to the penalty or penalties which may be imposed upon you pursuant to Rule 1001 (2) of the New Zealand Rules of Racing.

Charge 3 : that, being a licensed jockey, you failed to fulfil your riding engagement on CUGINI in the Capistrano Lodge 1400m at the Te Aroha Jockey Club’s race meeting on 28^th November 2007 and thereby you did commit a breach of Rule 520 (4) (a) of the said Rules and that you are liable to the penalty or penalties which may be imposed upon you pursuant to Rule 1003 (1) of the New Zealand Rules of Racing.