Australia tries to curb numbers of criminals fleeing its borders

Suspected criminals are causing problems in Australia as they flee the country with little hope of extradition. Photo / Getty Images

Melbourne - Two families, the Mitchells of Melbourne and the Hofstees from the Gold Coast do not know each other but became linked by tragedy this year.

Luke Mitchell (29), and Dean Hofstee (19), both went out at night in Melbourne for a few drinks but never made it home because they were killed.

The suspected killers of Mitchell fled to Thailand on the day of his death and Hofstee's killer, unlicensed drink driver Puneet Puneet (19), fled to his native India before he could be sentenced after pleading guilty to culpable driving.

There are countless other cases in Victoria and it's embarrassing stuff for the legal system, government and police force.

The issue came to a head when an Australian television crew from Channel Nine went looking for Puneet in India, while Victorian Premier John Brumby refused to even talk about extraditing him with Indian authorities during a visit there.

It was revealed recently Victoria Police had also not tried to extradite James McCulloch (52), who fled Australia to Scotland in 2006 on charges of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Police announced late on Friday they were re-considering their position and may now seek to extradite him.

Late last month Julian Matthias Buchwald (23), a Caucasian man of Victoria's East Gippsland, fled Australia to India after he had been convicted, and before he could be sentenced, for kidnapping his former girlfriend last year.

He got out of Australia using a fake Indian passport and darkening his hair and skin but airport authorities in India stopped him and flew him home where he is now in jail.

Police sources have told AAP about other cases that can't be revealed for legal reasons.

Shane Mitchell, Luke's older brother, said it added to his family's pain that the men he believed stabbed and kicked his brother to death were allowed to escape justice before police could arrest them.

Luke intervened to protect a stranger being bashed by his alleged killers outside a Melbourne nightclub.

"It's a difficult thing to go through and it's difficult to see other families go through it," Mitchell told AAP this week. "To see the person responsible for the death of your child or brother able to flee the country."

"It was explained to me when this first happened the reasons why they were able to get out so quickly and it made sense at the time but I am questioning it more and more."

Federal police could have turned the plane carrying the two men around at the time last May, but did not do so because of safety fears and the arrest warrants weren't ready.

"Of course I want the book thrown at them but if they got off scot free it would really tear my family to pieces," he said. "For a couple of punks to get off for killing someone of Luke's calibre."

Police knew for two months Puneet was missing when he stopped reporting for bail and have been heavily criticised for taking so long to issue an arrest warrant.

Hofstee's mother Fran criticised Mr Brumby who said in India this week that raising the issue of Puneet's extradition "was not a priority".

"It's certainly very upsetting for all of us that on a regular basis we have to remind politicians," Mrs Hofstee, whose son was competing in the University Games in Melbourne when he was hit by the car, told ABC Radio.

"Is it not their role, is it not part of their work? That's why they are in that role, to ensure the safety and security of not only Victorians but visitors too, so how can it not be a priority?"

During the fall-out from the Premier's comments, Victorian Deputy Premier Rob Hulls said he spoke to the Hofstees.

"I spoke to his (Dean's) parents and I made it quite clear that it is the intention of all authorities to do everything they can to bring Puneet back to this jurisdiction to face the full force of the law," he told reporters this week.

There is a perception that problems with accused criminals skipping bail is getting worse because of the high-profile cases mentioned.

However, federal attorney-general's office statistics show the numbers have been stable over the past decade.

They are still bad however, with the office ordering a review of the extradition system in 2005 because it was failing with the majority of requests (at least 66 per cent) unsuccessful.

Australia has extradition treaties with about 30 countries (there are about 200 sovereign states on the planet) meaning extraditing suspects will always be complex, expensive and lengthy, RMIT University criminologist Julian Bondy said.

He believes the government does not even bother applying for many possible extraditions because a deal would be too difficult with some countries.

"The Australia Federal Police does not have a good history there with the cases they have formal responsibility for," RMIT University criminologist Julian Bondy said.

Along with the high-profile cases, there have been countless examples in Australia of parents ignoring family court orders and kidnapping charges and heading overseas or interstate with children, he said.

Another criminologist, Professor Paul Wilson from Queensland's Bond University, said lengthy extraditions and appeals were a reality "we have to live with".

The better option would be for Customs and Border Protection officers to screen people properly and not let them get out of the country using fake passports in the first place, he said.

Or alternatively magistrates and judges should not be releasing them on bail.

"I fail to understand in the days of computers how trained Customs officers who should be looking for `alternative' passports could make such major errors and oversights," he told AAP.

"They are going to finger print passports but I would have thought this was a matter of good training. The consequences for the victims of serious crimes emotionally is that they are left out to hang."

A Customs spokesman said last month after Buchwald's attempted escape it would investigate the incident.

Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland made his frustration over the cases obvious this week and the media's actions in India.

"Having the media pursue these people overseas is not helpful, coming and telling me that you know someone who's living in a certain country is not helpful," he told reporters.

"It's complex and you just really need to calm down and let us get on with it."

A spokesman for federal Attorney General Attorney-General Robert McClelland would not comment on specific cases but admitted the extradition process was time consuming and it depended on which country it was dealing with.

"Whether the foreign country acts on Australia's request and the time in which it does so is a matter to be determined by the foreign country in accordance with its own domestic laws and procedures," he said in a statement.

"In the absence of a treaty, it is a matter for the domestic law in the foreign country to determine whether the country will agree to Australia's extradition request."

In the meantime the Mitchells, the Hofstees and many other families wait for justice.

The media speculated this week Puneet was hiding out near Mr Brumby's location in Chittorgarh, in southern India; then it was suggested he was with family in Chandigarh in the north.

However, Mr Overland said it could be years before he was extradited back to Australia and Mrs Hofstee said she was not optimistic.

- AAP