The former general manager of a gold mill is set to fight a range of serious charges over an alleged million-dollar theft in Western Australia.
Patrick Rhyan Keogh is one of five people charged over the alleged theft of 8,465 tonnes of gold-bearing ore — estimated to be worth $1.18 million — from the Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie.
The 40-year-old from East Fremantle faced the Kalgoorlie Magistrate's Court via audiolink on Monday, where he pleaded not guilty to stealing as a servant from his former employer.
The court heard Mr Keogh had also been charged with money laundering.
Mr Keogh held the position of general manager for FMR Investments for 12 years, where he oversaw the operation of the company's Gordon Sirdar gold mine as well as the Greenfields Mill.
The mill processes gold from other mining companies and professional prospectors in the region.
Mr Keogh has been released on $100,000 bail and is due to appear in the Perth Magistrate's Court next week.
'Flight risk' weighed up
Mr Keogh's lawyer, Johnson Kitto, told the court his client was of the "utmost good character" and had no criminal record.
He asked the court to remove strict bail conditions that required him to report to Fremantle Police Station three times a week.
"His job requires him to not be in Fremantle for every day of the week," Mr Kitto said.
Magistrate Genevieve Cleary said she would require a surety on top of the $100,000 personal undertaking before she removed the reporting conditions on his bail.
"Clearly this is a very serious charge," she said.
Co-accused yet to plead
Two of Mr Keogh's co-accused, 73-year-old Geographe man Christopher Robert Burns and 31-year-old Boulder woman Morgan Whitney Dombroski, are yet to enter pleas and are due back in court in coming weeks.
A 55-year-old man from Somerville and a 49-year-old man from Broadwood are due in court later this month on money laundering charges.
As part of their investigation, detectives executed nine search warrants at residential and commercial properties in the Kalgoorlie and Busselton areas over the past two months.
It is the second major case by the Kalgoorlie-based Gold Stealing Detection Unit in the past year.
Three people were charged over an alleged armed hold-up at the Beta Hunt gold mine near Kambalda in April last year, in which about $275,500 was stolen.
