Illegal Charters In FNQ?

[Sunfish]

According to the ABC's twisted grammar, a person is in court over alleged illegal charters.


Josh Hoch is accused of setting up two companies that chartered flights across north-west Queensland, without the permits necessary to fly commercially.

The 36-year-old pleaded not guilty to 14 charges in the Queensland District Court in Townsville this week, including dishonestly gaining a benefit of more than $30,000 and performing a duty without authorisation between 2011 and 2015.

Personal phone calls intercepted by police during their investigation into Hoch's activities were played in court on Friday.



https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-11/josh-hoch-pilot-accused-of-chartering-flights-illegally/101644104


What I don't understand is why there has apparently been a full blown police investigation, complete with phone taps? I would have thought CASA would have enough paper evidence in the form of log book entries, maintenance releases, etc. to substantiate the charges with no further work. ....Or is there no such evidence and CASA is making it up? Or is this just a FNQ aberration?

Please explain.

[Snakecharma]

Quite apart from all the obvious things, if a dodgy operator, not paying all the fees and charges a legit operator has to pay, derives a benefit of around 30k then the industry is stuffed.

He is either a really crap businessman (on top of being dodgy) or GA as we know it may as well pack up and go home as there simply isn’t the margin there to support a properly resourced, licenced operator with aeroplanes maintained to the appropriate standard.

When punters moan about paying for an airfare that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport for a flight on a 100 million dollar jet, what hope has some bloke in uopercomebucktawest got?

[Capt Fathom]

This came up on PPRuNe in 2017 (https://www.pprune.org/australia-new-zealand-pacific/590063-merged-pilot-alleged-have-sabotaged-engines-his-rival-s-aircraft.html?highlight=Hoch) with other alleged indiscretions.

[chimbu warrior]

Illegal charters aren't just happening in north Queensland.

[tail wheel]

Sunfish

There is a lot more to this case then a few illegal charters...........

[Kagamuga]

Someone is going to add 2 + 2 and come up with the missing person link in this case.

Maybe/possibly a person currently in jail in PNG ? I don't know; just asking the question ....

[Alice Kiwican]

Sunfish

There is a lot more to this case then a few illegal charters...........

Sabotaging/ tampering with competitors aircraft maybe……..

[Duck Pilot]

Obviously the Queensland Government (and possibly other state and territory governments) don't do any checks on their external aviation service providers, if they do the auditing is absolutely hopeless and the third-party aviation consultants are just bagging the cash and not providing the desired outcomes.

Blame CASA? Not in this case, the client (QLD government) should have been smart enough to ensure that the service provider was appropriately certified to conduct the flights. Not hard, just look for the AOC certificate on the wall, if it isn't visible ask to sight it - it's a no brainer.

I'm sure this **** has been going on for years, particularly out in the bush.

[tail wheel]

Not only the Queensland Government but a Member of Federal Parliament was also a regular client......

Alice Kiwican. And an alleged serious attack on an aircraft engineer.

[megle2]

Doesn’t the Qld Government put all their charter requirements through a single broker?

[steelcraft]

I heard the Judge / magistrate told CASA that they did not have all there evidence / procedures together properly and everyone was told to come back another day.

[Cloudee]

North Queensland pilot found guilty of fraud after chartering flights without a licence.Hoch's bail has been revoked and he will be sentenced on Monday.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-18/queensland-pilot-found-guilty-chartering-flights-unlicensed/101656012

[Cloudee]

This bloke cheated legitimate operators out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s operation like his that drive aviation down and down while CASA are too busy checking legitimate operators have the spelling right in their ops manuals.

“A North Queensland pilot has been sentenced to five years in jail, to be released after two, after he was convicted of fraud over flights he chartered without a licence for Kennedy MP Bob Katter.Key points:

37-year-old Josh Hoch will serve 2 years in jail after chartering flights without an air operators certificate or a commercial licence
Hoch received almost $370,000 from 96 illegally chartered flights between 2011 and 2015
61 of those flights carried MP Bob Katter

Josh Hoch was convicted by a jury in Townsville District Court on Friday of 13 charges including unlicensed flying and fraud to the value of $30,000 or more.

The 37-year-old operated two charter businesses, Flying Fitters Pty Ltd and Hoch Air Pty Ltd, without an aircraft operator's certificate between 2011 and 2015.

Hoch received about $370,000 from illegally-chartered flights over the four year period, including almost $260,000 for 61 charter flights which carried Katter's Australian Party politician, Bob Katter”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-21/pilot-josh-hoch-sentenced-fraud-unlicensed-flights-bob-katter/101678316

[Wizofoz]

So Katter spent taxpayers' money on a criminal enterprise. Tisk tisk!

[PiperCameron]

So Katter spent taxpayers' money on a criminal enterprise. Tisk tisk!

It's not as if this sort of thing hasn't happened before: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-08/pauline-hanson-staffer-james-ashby-investigated-for-flying-plane/9524516

Tisk, tisk, indeed!

[Lead Balloon]

As a matter of interest, on how many occasions has anyone asked to see the CPL and medical certificate of the flight crew member/s of the 'commercial aircraft' you're about to board, and to see a copy of the AOC under which the operation is about to occur? Me? Zero times.

Mr Katter doesn't know what he doesn't know, and wouldn't know whether a bunch of bits of paper put under his nose were legitimate documents satisfying regulatory requirements or impressive fakes.

Methinks Mr Hoch is not Robinson Crusoe.

[tossbag]

What happened to the other charges, weren't there aircraft sabotage allegations as well?

[Horatio Leafblower]

There is the matter of what they KNOW happened, and then there is what they can actually *prove* to the requisite legal standard.

...and sometimes proving the second bit brings out more evidence to support the case for the first bit.

[chimbu warrior]

As a matter of interest, on how many occasions has anyone asked to see the CPL and medical certificate of the flight crew member

And how many times have you scrutinised the credentials of your doctor, dentist or lawyer? We all rely on a high degree of trust in society, basically that someone offering a service is who/what they claim to be. I may be wrong, but understood this offender did have a CPL, but did not have an AOC.

[Lead Balloon]

You make my point for me.

[outnabout]

Most GA operators have their AOC on prominent display in their office, for passengers to inspect.

if passengers don’t know what they are looking at, how is that the operators problem?

About 50% of agencies / brokers now request a copy of AOC, insurance, aircraft MR and pilot’s CPL when making a booking. Due diligence is being done.

however, what make me incandescent with rage is that certain individuals involved with flying Queensland’s boys (and girls) in blue (khaki?) and guests of Her Majesty (as it was then) requested pilots to fly after pilots declared themselves fatigued, tampered (reduced) pilots duty times to allow for more duty, and routinely overran flight and duty times by extending tasks and allowing insufficient rest breaks afterwards.....the list goes on.

Thank God AFAP got involved and the case has been settled.
But a very talented pilot is now driving sugarcane trucks somewhere in Qld, utterly disillusioned with the industry.

Something, something, about glass houses and stones...