Police Life: The Experts podcast - Season 2 Episode 4: Franchise of fear transcript

A Rebels bikie gang member believes he is untouchable. He runs a network of drug and gun trafficking, seeking to strike fear into everyone he comes across.

But he has no idea the Echo Taskforce is secretly following his every criminal move.

Listen to this episode and other episodes of Victoria Police's official podcast, Police Life: The Experts.

Transcript of Police Life: The Experts podcast, Season 2 Episode 4: Franchise of fear

Introduction: You’re listening to Police Life: The Experts, a Victoria Police podcast, shining a light on our people, and their extraordinary skills.

Introduction: This podcast episode contains strong language. Listener discretion is advised. Conversations captured by telephone intercepts have been recreated in this episode by voice actors.

Voiceover: In 2018, Victoria Police’s Echo Taskforce was looking at the state’s biggest outlaw motorcycle gang, the Rebels. Detectives identified a chink in the gang’s armour – a high-ranking office bearer of the club who believed he was untouchable.

[Sounds of motorcycles driving by and sirens over suspenseful music]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): We want it done tonight.

Associate (voice actor): Yeah, mate as I said, yeah.

Matthew Bruce: You need another car. Not in my street, outside my street.

Associate: Yeah I know. I've got all that planned, it's all hooked up bro.

Matthew Bruce: You gotta cover yourself, too.

Voiceover: Matthew Bruce always wanted to be a somebody, a big man in his suburb. That’s why he joined the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang. His outlaw patch turned him from a minor criminal into a serious violent offender – a menace to the community, a judge would later say. However, Matthew Bruce’s career as a gangster was brief, ending in February 2019 in the back of an ambulance, beaten and bruised by criminal associates, his empire in ruins.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: We followed that ambulance from where he was to the Sunshine Hospital, unbeknownst to Matthew or the ambulance crew. As that rear door opened, he was sitting there on his phone, injured, feeling sore and sorry for himself. And then as soon as the doors opened, we grabbed him and took that phone. And he was shocked. That look on his face was utter shock, but it was nothing compared to what was about to come in the days afterwards and the months later when that brief of evidence was served on him.

He maintained that persona of, “I’m Matt Tatts”, as he called himself. “I'm a Rebels bikie. You've got nothing on me”. He was about to become aware of exactly how much we knew, what we’d discovered, and that he was set for a significant period of imprisonment.

My name is Justin Mercovich. I’m a detective senior sergeant with Victoria Police, having joined Victoria Police in 2006. And I'm currently the officer in charge of a work unit known as the Eastern Region Crime Squad.

For this investigation, I was a detective sergeant at the Victoria Police Crime Command at a work unit known as the Echo Taskforce, which is tasked with the investigation of outlaw motorcycle gang and organised crime gangs within Victoria.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: Six months earlier, ‘Matt Tatts’ was riding high. He wanted the Echo Taskforce to know who he was. To Bruce, being a high-value target was a status symbol. Attracting the attention of the taskforce was not a wise career move.

Ashley Ryan is one of the bosses of the Echo Taskforce.

Detective Senior Sergeant Ashley Ryan: So my name’s Detective Senior Sergeant Ashley Ryan and I’m at the Echo Taskforce with Victoria Police.

Echo Taskforce commenced in late January 2011 and the aim was to identify, prevent, detect and disrupt illegal activity by all OMCG members within Victoria. Echo Taskforce focuses on a number of different things to achieve that disruption and increasing the level of OMCG compliance across a broad spectrum of areas. But that's not only the crime aspect of it, but it's also by enforcement and disruption in particular.

The idea is to improve public safety, increase community confidence, which is really important as far as Victoria Police is concerned, but it's to actively engage OMCGs in all activities. But that can include licensing, road runs and events, and public order matters as well. For instance, parties or other types of gatherings as well. The idea specifically is to create a hostile environment for the OMCGs or the outlaw motorcycle gangs to operate within Victoria.

So the outlaw motorcycle gangs are deemed to be what we look at as criminal organisations and they operate at the highest level as far as crimes in particular. They’re transnational organisations that operate around the world. And we're talking about drug trafficking, extortions, serious assaults, even to the offence of murder as well, that are investigated. So the impact of the crimes committed by outlaw motorcycle gangs are at the highest end.

So I've been at Echo since December 2019 and my role specifically at Echo is to manage three crews that target and police specific outlaw motorcycle gangs and their criminal offending.

And the level of drug trafficking, alleged drug trafficking that these gangs are involved in, and the level of offending, is ever increasing. So that's what we need to be mindful of in this ever-shifting landscape within the outlaw motorcycle gangs. So not only do they evolve, but we need to evolve with that to ensure that we're able to effectively police these groups.

Voiceover: Ashley, Justin and the rest of the Echo Taskforce were taking a good look at the increasing offending related to the Rebels.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: So any organisation, or any criminal organisation, is going to have those weaker points that you can target using what you can to identify that little gap you can move through and then open up a wider piece of the puzzle.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: Matthew Bruce was that weak point for Echo. He was a man in a hurry. Prior to becoming a bikie, Bruce’s criminal offending was unremarkable – a history of mostly minor thefts and violence. That changed after he became a fully patched Rebels member in early 2015. He used the Rebels’ brand to graduate to serious, organised and violent crime by 2018.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: When we first met him, he thought he was so important. He thought we knew who he was. He thought that we were looking at him so hard, as he put it. But the reality was, that wasn't the case. But if he did think that he was of such importance to us, you would have thought that he would be a little bit more attuned to what he was doing and how he was going about it.

Voiceover: Bruce was a prolific but careless offender – a suspect in several violent crimes, but he had so far avoided charges. He now had the full attention of Echo’s investigators, who take a multi-faceted approach to bring down bikie offenders.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: The reason why the Echo Taskforce is successful is that you don't focus on one singular investigative tactic to try and eliminate or disrupt the offenders. Whether it's traffic and road policing enforcement one day, whether it's liquor licensing enforcement the next, or it's an investigation to target an individual within a gang to try and disrupt their influence in the gang, or the gang as a whole, and bring all those different parts together as a way to continually put pressure on the criminal activities of those gangs.

Voiceover: This was a violent era, with tensions between rival clubs in Victoria breaking out into public violence. The Echo Taskforce had its hands full investigating unsolved shootings and arson attacks, which were thought to be connected to the Rebels.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: At the same time this happened, Victoria Police were also investigating a drive-by shooting at the house of the former president of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang, Brent Reker. Brent Reker was a very well-known outlaw motorcycle figure across Australia. He had moved from Western Australia to Victoria and taken up a position as an office bearer within the Finks in Victoria and had commenced a new chapter down south. He lived in Frankston with his partner and young child.

[Re-created audio from a 2018 news report]

Newsreader: Underworld figures fear an all-out bikie war is about to erupt after the Finks’s boss's home was targeted in a drive-by shooting while his wife and 11-day-old baby slept inside. Brent James Reker's home in Frankston, in Melbourne's south-east, was sprayed with bullets and a car firebombed about 4:40am Thursday.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: At least one of those rounds missed Reker’s house and went through the property at the neighbouring address. Inside that house was a young family and a young baby, and a bullet went through the window and through the bedroom where that child was sleeping.

So that investigation, from the early stages, was looking at other outlaw motorcycle gangs that may be involved in that offending. And it was very quickly identified that the most likely culprits for that were the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, who had an ongoing and well-known dispute with the Finks and Brent Reker in particular. So Matthew Bruce was considered and identified as a person of interest in that investigation.

So whilst trying to gather evidence in relation to that investigation, we were also trying to disrupt the activities of Matthew Bruce and what he was doing for his own syndicate, using his own people, for his own benefit in the Melton area.

Voiceover: Public safety is the highest priority, so Echo’s first move was to remove Matthew Bruce’s access to firearms.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: So Matthew Bruce was identified by a member from the team, very diligent member of the team, who identified him as a suitable candidate for the firearms prohibition order. Firearms prohibition order legislation was introduced in 2018. It gave police the ability to make an application to the Chief Commissioner or a delegate to apply for a firearms prohibition order, which restricted a person's access to firearms, firearms-related parts, and also who they could be present with, or where they could be present, with firearms.

When we arrived at the house and served the FPO on Bruce, he was almost happy to see us. He gave the impression of someone who had been waiting for this and probably saw it as a bit of a badge of honour that the Echo Taskforce were there talking to him at that point. And he openly said to us at the time, “I've been waiting for you to come around. I know I’m of high importance to you and the Echo Taskforce”.

So Matthew Bruce was a member of the, what's called the Melbourne chapter, which is actually based in Sunshine. But it is the in-charge chapter of the Rebels throughout Victoria. Matthew Bruce informed us that he had taken a break from the club for a period of time, but he also informed us that he was the sergeant-at-arms of the Rebels’ Melbourne chapter. And that was a bit of a shock to us at the time. What was also surprising was that someone would volunteer that information to police.

For a lot of members in outlaw motorcycle gangs, they won't identify their position as an office bearer within the club through fear that it will put extra attention on them from authorities. Matthew Bruce was almost excited to inform us that he was the Melbourne chapter sergeant-at-arms.

So the sergeant-at-arms is an important role – they’re an enforcer within the club. They are responsible for internal discipline within the club. If there's a dispute with another club, if there's an issue in relation to discipline internally within the club, the sergeant-at-arms is a person who will take responsibility for that.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: As sergeant-at-arms, Matthew Bruce was also responsible for maintaining the club’s brand – the propensity for violence that is central to the business model of every outlaw motorcycle gang.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Fear is the absolute main commodity that they rely upon to operate how they operate. And they use that fear through their size, through their clothing, through their branding, through the very fact that they are a group of people with a singular purpose – to try and instill fear on the community.

Voiceover: Matthew Bruce was an unremarkable crook. To be successful, he needed the threat of the Rebels behind him.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: He had a HSV Commodore with personalised plates on it, ‘FEARD’, F-E-A-R-D. He wanted the people that he dealt with to know that he was a member of the Rebels and that he was someone to be feared.

He had a number of facial tattoos, and he referred to himself as ‘Matt Tatts’. So people weren’t confused – they knew who Matt Tatts was. If he was seeking a debt or he was trying to deal with an issue, he would remind people who he was and what his position within the Rebels was.

He believed that he was untouchable. I remember one time, shortly after we served the FPO on him, he actually rang me to tell me that he had a new phone number, which was an interesting move. But he believed that he was that important to the Echo Taskforce.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: Justin Mercovich’s boss, Ashley Ryan, knew Matthew Bruce before his rise to infamy in Melton.

Detective Senior Sergeant Ashley Ryan: I was previously at Melton Crime Investigation Unit, where I had a previous involvement and dealings with Matthew. And I can say that Matthew was always respectful and he was never an issue to really deal with. And it really does go to show, that although they do communicate with you, they're still capable of committing some really serious crimes.

And what we've seen with Matthew was that the crimes were really high level, were really violent and, you know, the weapons that were being used and the drugs that were being trafficked were at the higher end.

Voiceover: He acted one way with police, but another way entirely with those caught up in his crimes. Despite his reputation, Matthew Bruce’s Rebels membership had not delivered him the riches he’d hoped for. He had even considered getting out of the club.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: I’ve spoken to a lot of outlaw motorcycle gang members over the years, many of them very senior members who have almost been in tears asking for help to get out because what they joined, what they thought they were joining, ended up being very different. So they get given the glossy brochure at the start – money, power, drugs, girls, whatever it may be. And when they join, they realise that it's actually not, it's not that.

The people at the top – it’s like a pyramid scheme – those at the top of the tree of the club, they are doing well. They're financially well-off, but the people below them who do the grunt work, who are the ones committing the offences, who are the ones working on behalf of those at the top of the tree, don't receive the same benefits and they end up in custody or out of the club and in fear for their life because they've left on bad circumstances.

And despite his high level of rank within the club, Matthew Bruce wasn't living a luxurious life. He didn't have a lot of money so he had to, on the side, run his own enterprise, ruined a lot of lives in the process of those closest to him in order to achieve that.

We weren't expecting it to play out the way it did, but once we scratched the surface of who Matthew Bruce was, and we realised that we were dealing with someone who was actually involved in significant criminality in and around that Melton area, and that there was a significant amount of violent crime that was going unreported and that was occurring in the community. And the centrepiece to that crime was Matthew Bruce.

There was a number of non-fatal shootings in and around the Melton area where, shortly after those incidents, Matthew Bruce arrived at the scene to assist the victims, who were people that he knew. There was a common denominator in a lot of those investigations, which was Matthew Bruce. They were either associates of his or enemies of his, and they had been targeted.

[Sounds of motorcycles driving by and sirens over suspenseful music]

Voiceover: Much of this violence was related to Bruce’s trafficking of methamphetamine, cannabis and prescription drugs. The 34-year-old bikie regarded Melton as his turf.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Melton is a suburb out in the western suburbs of Victoria. It's densely populated, it's more affordable housing. So a lot of new residents to Victoria move to Melton and its surrounds.

Matthew Bruce lived in Melton with his partner, Cursty Shields. They had one child together, and Cursty had a number of children, and Matthew Bruce also had a number of children, to previous partners.

Matthew Bruce, he did what was best for Matthew Bruce at all times. So he had a relationship with Cursty Shields, who was a very big supporter of his and would work for him and do whatever he asked. Unbeknownst to Cursty, he was in a relationship with her sister, Jessica Shields, at the same time. So we were hearing this in the background. He would say that he was somewhere else and he was with Jessica. And Jessica was also offending on his behalf.

In terms of Matthew Bruce's connection to the Melton community, he had resided there for a long time. He had a twin sister who also lived in the area, and a number of associates who lived in and around Melton. That was his primary operating ground, and information was coming through to us that people were scared of Matthew Bruce.

He had no fear of the local community or the police, and he believed that he sat at the top of the tree in that Melton area. He would deal with matters himself in terms of, by recruiting other people to do his dirty work for him. And he didn't hesitate to bring in those closest to him, his loved ones and his family, to work on his behalf.

Voiceover: This work included delivering drugs, collecting cash and helping Bruce to sell illegal firearms.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: We started to put the pieces of the puzzle together. We could see the level of violence and the level of criminality that he was involved in. So it was important for us to disrupt it quickly to protect the community.

Voiceover: The focus on Matthew Bruce continued through Christmas 2018 and into the new year. It had begun with serving a firearms prohibition order on him and would take Justin Mercovich’s crew much deeper into the Rebels gang.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Matthew Bruce, he's charged in relation to some items that are found at his house. And he's charged with trafficking cannabis and some other minor offences. And then we commenced this larger investigation called Operation Polar, which was aimed to investigate the activities of Matthew Bruce with a secondary focus of continuing to disrupt the activities of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: So in January 2019, police began to lawfully intercept Bruce's phone calls. That phone tap was a treasure trove of evidence, on his cannabis dealings...

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bentley (voice actor): What was the price of the green? Is it the same, yeah?

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): You gave me $1800 last time – that would be $900, I’ve got a little bit of that left. Tomorrow, I will have a pound of better stuff that will be $950. In four weeks, I should have about 100 pounds of grouse shit.

Voiceover: Illegal prescription drugs like Valium...

Jessica Shields (voice actor): He’s in Collingwood now making another sale for you.

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): Who are the Vallies for?

Jessica Shields: I gave Amanda one though.

Matthew Bruce: I gave her three last night with a bit of bud.

Voiceover: His methamphetamine business…

Matthew Bruce: Try and get a few bag sales, please. Try and get a me a couple – I’ve got, like, f***ing 14 bags I need to get rid of. I’ve got a kilo coming in myself this week, and so I’ve got to get rid of these so I can get that kilo.

Voiceover: And illegal firearms, including assault rifles…

Matthew Bruce: It’s starting to f***ing piss me off. I need to f***ing sell that f***ing machine gun. Did that guy want it or not?

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: From the first day it became evident how wide and how significant Matthew Bruce's offending was. He was openly trafficking methamphetamine over the phones. He was talking about crimes of violence. We were able to identify a number of suppliers to him of who he was buying his drugs from. We were able to identify that he was recruiting family members.

He was not sophisticated in the code that he used. It was not difficult to decipher any code. He was openly talking about the offending. He openly spoke about hurting people, about torturing people, about possession of firearms and the trafficking of drugs.

Voiceover: Echo had many different offences to choose from but Bruce’s trade in illegal firearms was the highest priority.

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): I'm not 100 per cent sure if it’s an AK as it’s got a custom stock on it. It’s either an AK, M4, SKS alright, they all shoot the same round, which is an AK round.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: An AK 47, as most people would have seen it in the movies, (is) a semi-automatic, or a modified firearm to be automatic firearm, that can discharge a significant number of rounds in a very short period of time. Very high-powered firearm, absolutely no reason for anyone to need to possess that firearm. And of great concern to us.

The knowledge obviously we had at the time was that the firearm used to shoot Brent Reker’s property in Frankston was identified to be an assault rifle, with large-calibre 7.62 ammunition. The level of damage that firearm could cause to the community is significant. And once we identify that Bruce has that firearm, recovering that firearm and getting it out of the hands of Bruce and his associates becomes a key priority.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: On January 27, 2019, police listen to Bruce negotiating the sale of his assault rifle. He was using his twin sister Sarah to market the firearm to potential buyers.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): Did you ask the guy if he wants that thing or not?

Sarah Bruce (voice actor): Yeah.

Matthew Bruce: I've got over 380 rounds of it.

If he buys the thing, he can have all the rounds and if he needs more then I’ve gotta find out the price when he needs more, 380 rounds are gonna last a long time. There’s probably about 600, 700 rounds to be honest with ya, all up.

I want $27,500 for it.

Sarah Bruce: You told me 25 the other night.

Matthew Bruce: That was with f*** all rounds.

I can get 35 for it Sarah, if I wait a week. He can even come to watch a video on her phone when it's clearer.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Community safety and protecting the community is that number one priority. So we commenced work on identifying where Matthew Bruce is storing those firearms and our ability to seize those firearms and take those firearms off the street.

Voiceover: The next day Bruce and his partner, Cursty Shields, discuss a place to test-fire the assault rifle and film a video to help attract a buyer. They choose Wombat State Forest, a popular tourist destination 50 kms west of Melbourne.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): Do you reckon you could take me back out to Wombat today?

Cursty Shields (voice actor): Why?

Matthew Bruce: Because I want to put that thing back in place and I want to try it properly before I go whinging to the c***.

Cursty Shields: Does no one want to buy it?

Matthew Bruce: Someone will probably buy it, but I don’t want it coming back on my arse.

Cursty Shields: Do you want to go play with daddy's gun?

Matthew Bruce: Hey?

Cursty Shields: I'm talking to Aubree.

Matthew Bruce: What are you saying?

Cursty Shields: I said, “Do you want to go play with daddy’s gun?”.

Matthew Bruce: If you're going to Bunnings can you get me some ear plugs?

Cursty Shields: Yeah, I'll get her some too.

Matthew Bruce: It's going to be loud.

Cursty Shields: I wonder what she will be like hearing it.

Matthew Bruce: I want to make it work on full auto, and this time I want you to record the whole f****ing thing.

Voiceover: Investigators would later find the video Cursty recorded of Bruce firing the assault rifle.

[Sound of bullets being fired]

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Matthew Bruce, with a cigarette in his mouth. There's a guitar case on the floor. Like something out of the movies. He then discharges the firearm and the power of that firearm knocks him off balance. He almost falls over.

The video is filmed by his partner, Cursty Shields, and they had their young child in the bush with them at the time. That was during the day on a summer's day in a bushland area where people could have been walking, and you've got Matthew Bruce firing an assault rifle in a public location.

Our absolute priority is to locate that firearm. As luck would have it, Matthew Bruce moves that firearm and a number of firearms to a known associate by the name of Matthew Bentley.

Voiceover: Bruce obviously has no idea that Echo has infiltrated every part of his life and is all over his conversations. The only code he uses with Matthew Bentley is calling the weapon a guitar.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): Can I bring my guitar back over in about an hour?

Is your missus up? Because I want to drop the guitar off if that’s all right. I’ll be picking it up at nine in the morning if that’s all right, because I didn’t end up going out today, I’ll go out tomorrow.

Voiceover: But before Bruce can retrieve his guitar, Echo Taskforce swoop on Bentley’s home and seize the assault rifle and other guns.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Shortly after that, Matthew Bruce drives past Bentley's house, sees the police out the front of the house, and immediately goes into panic mode.

Voiceover: Not surprisingly, Matthew Bentley isn’t picking up his phone, so Bruce calls Jessica Shields, Cursty’s sister.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): The cops are everywhere at my mate’s house where all my shit is, they’re out the front of his house and he’s not answering his f***ing phone.

Jessica Shields (voice actor): Don't go there.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: He's on the phone telling people that his stash of firearms has likely been taken. He drives past at one point in his Rebels colours, it’s what we call soft colours, so not his vest, but a jumper or a t-shirt. He changes vehicles. He drives past again.

Voiceover: Justin Mercovich wants Bruce to think its local police raiding the home, not the Echo Taskforce.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: So anyone who dealt with Matthew Bruce previously was inside that house at the time. We knew that Matthew Bruce had dealt with myself and other members of the crew, and we didn't want him to see us there and then become aware that the Echo Taskforce were there for those firearms.

He has other friends of his drive past that address. He's trying to convince himself that police don't know that the firearms are there or they're not his firearms.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): Before you go home you should go back past there.

Jessica Shields (voice actor): Why?

Matthew Bruce: I don’t know. See if they’re actually going in his house, or if they're just out the front.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: He looks at the police members out the front and convinces himself that it's not the Echo Taskforce because he didn't recognise us.

It's important because at that point, we still wanted to continue the investigation. There were so many vital pieces of the puzzle that we hadn't put together. Who was the buyer of the firearm? What was going to happen with the firearms? We'd mitigated the risk because we’ve taken those firearms out of play. Matthew Bruce couldn't hurt anyone with those firearms because we now had carriage and control of the firearms.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: Now Bruce worries that his friend Matthew Bentley will give him up to police as the owner of the firearms.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): If he talks, I'm f***ed.

Jessica Shields (voice actor): You're not gonna get arrested. Your prints are on nothing. Did you wipe down that other one?

Matthew Bruce: Nothing’s wiped down. My prints are on everything.

Jessica Shields: Babe, stop stressing.

Matthew Bruce: It's a lot of f***ing money. I'm gonna end up selling the car if I have to.

Voiceover: Later, Bruce bemoaned his fate in calls with other associates. He had built his identity on being feared, now he was one who was afraid.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): I lost everything today, bro. My stash place got done. I lost me machine gun, I lost everything. I lost 40k worth of shit, bro. Oozies, handguns, f***ing machine guns. I just hope the c*** sticks fat and doesn’t drop my name. If they fingerprint them my prints are on them anyways. He’s looking at 20 years, I’m telling ya. A full automatic is a terrorism charge. He got done today over drugs. He got caught with about $100 grand worth of hardware, I mean full power tools. Yeah, you know, automatic shit.

Voiceover: Bruce has lost a lot of money with the four firearms seized and the admissions he’s making on the phone are damning, but he doesn’t break stride. The very same day as the raid, he’s organising an insurance fraud with his partner Cursty.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Cursty Shields (voice actor): Do you know anyone who can do an insurance job on this car ASAP?

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): Why?

Cursty Shields: Because me temperature gauge is fucking hot as f***, me car’s f***ed.

Matthew Bruce: I’m gonna have to get a four-wheel drive, but don’t talk about it on the phone, they’re gonna want phone records.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: So on the 10 of February 2019, Matthew Bruce commenced organising, or attempting to organise, an insurance fraud on a motor vehicle. It was all about getting a payout from the insurance company in relation to a car. And once again, he didn't do it himself, he outsourced every part of it.

And all those conversations were recorded as Matthew Bruce was tasking people, giving them very clear instructions on how to conduct this insurance fraud, which involved crashing a car in a street and the occupant driver driving off and leave it there, and then a claim being made to the insurance company for the car being written off.

A couple of failed attempts, or at least one failed attempt at committing the insurance fraud before it went ahead.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: The Echo Taskforce even made sure to get hold of the audio of Cursty phoning Triple Zero (000) after the crash she had asked him to organise.

[Recording of Triple Zero (000) call]

Operator: Emergency Services.

Telstra: 736445.

Operator: Thanks, Telstra. Hello, what address do you need the police to attend?

Cursty Shields: [street address beeped out] Weir Views or Melton South, it's – yeah ...

Operator: Yeah. What's happening there?

Cursty Shields: Um, I'm not sure exactly what's happened, like, I was just woken up and there is a car ...

Operator: Mmm'hm.

Cursty Shields: ... running in the middle of the street, which has hit my car.

Operator: Oh, okay.

Cursty Shields: The car's still there and no-one's in it.

Operator: All right. So, okay. So it's one vehicle into your parked car. Is that correct?

Cursty Shields: Yes.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: That car was involved in a collision, and the claim was made. Obviously, we were well aware of that. And then at the conclusion of the investigation, he was charged with that. But obviously the insurance company was made aware that this was an entirely fraudulent claim, and he never received a payout in relation to it.

Voiceover: Matthew Bruce wasn’t finished yet. Little more than two weeks later he is behind an arson attack in Melton on behalf of an associate in prison.

[Re-created police phone intercept]

Matthew Bruce (voice actor): I'm getting it done. I’m going to have a barbecue tonight.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Matthew Bruce organises for an arson to occur on an associate’s house. That was a direct act of fear and intimidation against the parents. Not even the person involved, the parents of someone that an associate had been having a dispute with.

[Sounds of flames, followed by sirens]

Voiceover: An associate pours petrol on two cars outside the house and destroys the vehicles. At the same time Bruce is organising a drive-by shooting.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: On the 16 of February, 2019, Matthew Bruce arranges a drive-by shooting at an address of an associate in Melton. Again, he tasks two people, two offenders who are not members of the Rebels, to shoot it up using an Adler shotgun that Matthew Bruce had access to. And they commit that offence and luckily, the occupant at that house is uninjured during that shooting.

Voiceover: The Echo Taskforce now knows that Bruce has more guns and they go after this second cache of weapons.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: The firearms were then stored at a rural property in a horse float.

So his partner Cursty was heavily involved in horses and they had a number of horses. They used that horse float as a storage location for their firearms after Matthew Bentley was arrested. Again, they believed that location to be a safe location. On the 17 of February, 2019, Matthew Bruce is involved in a series of incidents in the Melton area.

He commits what we believe to be an aggravated burglary on an associate’s address during the daytime, and upon committing that he is assaulted by the occupants of that address, and he received some facial injuries. Matthew Bruce immediately leaves that house, gets on the phone and starts calling in support from associates of his within the outlaw motorcycle gang and also his partner, because he was then on a mission to locate the people that assaulted him and seek revenge.

Matthew Bruce makes a phone call to Cursty Shields and gives her very clear directions to go and collect the Adler shotgun from the known location at the horse float. Cursty then follows that instruction. She drives and she picks up the shotgun.

That was only going to end, in our view, with someone being shot. So we had to disrupt that.

That firearm had to be recovered. She could not be allowed to get that firearm to Matthew Bruce.

As she's on the way to meet Matthew Bruce, she's pulled over by police. We have her intercepted. They conduct a search of the car. They find the shotgun in the car and Cursty is arrested.

She rings him to say that she's just been pulled over, she's in custody and police have the firearm. And Bruce's first reaction is to talk about himself. His first comment was along the lines of, “They’ll never prove it was me”.

There's no concern for Cursty. There's no concern for what he's tasked her to do, and that she's now been intercepted and arrested. It's about Matthew Bruce and what we can prove about his possession of that firearm.

Matthew Bruce, he has no fear of anything that he discusses over the phone at any point. He genuinely believes that he's untouchable.

[Suspenseful music begins to play]

Voiceover: What Matthew Bruce doesn’t know is that his freedom is about to end. After weeks of gathering evidence on all his crimes and connections, now is the perfect time for Justin and his colleagues to swoop.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: So after Cursty is arrested, Bruce continues. He's getting people together because he intends on going to seek revenge off these people who have assaulted him. Prior to doing that, he realises that he needs some medical treatment, and he seeks medical treatment from a nearby facility. They put him in an ambulance and convey him to Sunshine Hospital to undergo treatment.

As the ambulance pulls up at the Sunshine Hospital, the rear doors open and myself and my team from the Echo Taskorce are there to arrest Matthew Bruce. He's got his phone in his hand at the time. His phone is taken off him and instantly it's the exact same position he's held throughout this entire investigation, “You've got nothing on me”.

I'm sure there was a moment where Matthew Bruce realised that the Echo Taskforce were much better than he thought they were.

Voiceover: For someone who, months ago, was happy to talk with police, Bruce isn’t so chatty in his police interview.

[Excerpt of audio from police interview]

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: All right, Matt, can you tell me what's happened this evening?

Matthew Bruce: Yeah, I got to the hospital and got arrested.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Yeah? Can you tell me what happened before that?

Matthew Bruce: No comment.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: I noticed that you're wearing quite some – some injuries to the head area and you were in hospital tonight when you got arrested. Can you tell me how those injuries happened?

Matthew Bruce: No comment.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Okay. Your partner, Cursty Shields, was arrested today in possession of an Adler shotgun. Can you tell me about that?

Matthew Bruce: No comment.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: All right. Have you ever been involved in the trafficking of drugs of dependence?

Matthew Bruce: No comment.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: All right.

Voiceover: And it wasn’t just Bruce who had to answer for his crimes.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: Cursty Shields was remanded in custody. Cursty's sister Jessica was remanded in custody. His sister was arrested and charged. All his associates, those responsible for the drive-by shooting, were arrested, charged and remanded.

Those responsible for the arson were arrested and charged. Every little detail that we could was followed up. He was charged with the arson, the shootings, the firearms trafficking. He was charged in relation to the attempt to obtain financial advantage from the insurance company through the insurance fraud. And the brief of evidence that was put together was damning.

And it really covered how he ran his syndicate that nothing was off limits.

Bruce appears before the County Court of Victoria, and he is sentenced on the 20 and the 21 of August, 2020. His Honour Judge Stuart submitted a detailed finding in relation to Matthew Bruce and what his penalty was. And in it, the judge clearly breaks down the penalties for the individual offending.

But then considers the overall impact that Bruce's offending has had. He is sentenced to 21 years and six months imprisonment with 15 years non-parole period, which at the time was the single largest term of imprisonment for an outlaw motorcycle gang member in Victoria where there was no charge of murder.

The team that I was so privileged to lead at the Echo Taskforce were an incredible group of detectives, amazing at what they did, incredibly dedicated, who sacrificed a significant amount of their own time and their family's time to bring Matthew Bruce to justice. There are so many people behind the scenes that don't get credit for it. So many specialist units. So many people that work behind that are involved in this sentence. And knowing that Matthew Bruce can't harm anyone for at least 15 years is a significant outcome.

Not everyone is going to be the person who signs the charges and goes to court and is the informant. But there are so many roles behind that, so many minor jobs, that appear minor at the time, to progress an investigation that are just so valuable, the whole operation will fall down if you don't have someone doing that individual task.

Voiceover: Operation Polar stopped Matthew Bruce in his tracks but it also weakened the Rebels gang and took some senior office bearers out of circulation. A number of matters were solved, including the drive-by shooting on Finks bikie Brent Reker. The Echo Taskforce discovered Bruce was responsible for the attack. Reker died in jail in December 2019 but the prosecution still went ahead.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: We were able to gather significant evidence in support of the prosecution for the drive-by shooting at Brent Reker’s house. And some months after he was charged, a further brief of evidence was served on him, and he was charged with the drive-by shooting at Brent Reker’s house, which was a significant result. You've got high-powered rifle, the same type of firearm, but not the same firearm that was involved that we seized.

So both of those were SKS assault rifles, which again, you got a person in possession of two assault rifles, has now been charged with a drive-by shooting.

Whilst not all the parties involved in that drive-by shooting have been charged or identified, there is some justice in that one of the main perpetrators, one of the main leaders, a sergeant-at-arms of an outlaw motorcycle gang is in prison and has been held to account for that incident.

One of the missions of the investigation was always to identify further avenues of inquiry to disrupt the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang. At the same time this was occurring, that Matthew Bruce was running rampant through the western suburbs of Melbourne, a second sergeant-at-arms at the Melbourne chapter of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang was being investigated by my crew for serious extortion, blackmail and violent crimes.

He too was charged and remanded in custody. All of this occurred at a time when the Rebels were trying to significantly expand their footprint in Victoria. They were trying to recruit more members and trying to get back to a position they had been in previously as a really strong club in Victoria.

To do so, a man by the name of Ray Elise, who was originally from New Zealand, had moved to New South Wales. He was brought into Victoria to take over as the state president of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang.

With his arrival, we saw significant increases in recruitment, increases in the public profile of the club. Using all the information that we have at our disposal we were able to make an application to the Federal Government to have Ray Elise's visa cancelled. He was a risk to the Victorian community.

[Sound of a plane taking off]

Voiceover: In 2020, Ray Elise was deported back to his native New Zealand where he has continued his gang affiliations.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: These type of investigations, they are consuming because you're so heavily invested in it. You’re invested in success for the investigation. You're invested in your members, making sure that they're all looked after. It's exhausting. It's tiring, but it's worth it because at the end of the day, Matthew Bruce was doing what he wanted, and everyone was too scared to say anything about it.

These are career jobs. These are the type of jobs that, you know, I still catch up with members that were involved in this job, and we still talk about this because we did something amazing here. We took a violent person, we took him off the streets. We had a significant impact on the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang.

Voiceover: This is just one operation of many since Echo was created in 2011. Detective Senior Sergeant Ashley Ryan believes Echo has made a real impact on the outlaw gangs.

Detective Senior Sergeant Ashley Ryan: For me it's the members. How committed they are to ensuring that the safety of our community is paramount. And they really will stop at nothing to ensure that, you know, that safety is maintained. And their devotion and dedication to ensuring that investigations are conducted to the highest level to ensure that these members, when they're committing serious crimes, they’re held to account for them.

So for me, I really take significant satisfaction out of that, that we're able to have that impact on these crimes. That really ensures that our community are safe. And we'll continue to do that into the future.

Voiceover: Justin Mercovich has left the Echo Taskforce and his current role involves tackling youth gangs that are becoming involved in serious crime. It’s been a natural progression for him.

Detective Senior Sergeant Justin Mercovich: After I left the Echo Taskforce, I spent two and a half years at the Critical Incident Response Team, which was a complete step away from investigative work, but I had transferable skills. So skills for managing a high-risk OMCG person running around with a firearm to managing a siege situation or an armed offender are very similar.

And now I’ve taken them into my current role where we see youth gangs causing significant issues in our community. The blueprint is the same for a youth gang and an outlaw motorcycle gang. There's a hierarchy, there's people calling the shots, there's recruitment, and they're selling a message to those that they’re recruiting about how good that life is. But the reality is it's not.

Matthew Bruce, his criminal history prior to being arrested wasn't significant. So he's made a significant jump. He's gone from someone who's had some involvement with police to extreme, high level of offending, probably unnoticed or just hasn't been caught. So there's that big gap. And that's what we're seeing with our youth offenders today.

When I first joined Victoria Police my first interaction with youth crime would be probably the theft of a chocolate bar at a supermarket - a caution - and you wouldn't see them again. Now that we know that their offending is very significant from a younger age, and they've been taught and they've been educated and they can see the profit motivation.

And we also know that organised crime groups are preying on that and they're targeting those youths. So it's really important that we disrupt the offending and get into these kids as early as possible so that they don't take the path of Matthew Bruce.

Outro Voiceover: Police Life: The Experts will be taking a short break over Christmas, and returning for the second half of season 2 on January 14.

Stay tuned now for a sneak peak of our next episode, where we talk to tactical operators from one of Australia's most secretive police units, the Special Operations Group.

Special Operations Group member: I suppose one particular one that comes to mind in a kidnapping, and hostage taking job was a few years ago now. Where a guy was holding a knife to a male friend, and he was off his face on drugs, and he was very aggressive.

And the Senior Sergeant spoke to the team leader, and said that we are getting information from a mate of his who's getting texts from the victim who is inside, saying that he is in this room, and he has half got the window open, and thinks that he can jump out the window.

So the Senior Sergeant said "Have you got a plan to maybe assist with that?" And I said, look, you know, I'm pretty happy, I'll crawl down the side of the house and get underneath the window.

And we will set it up so we've got members on the other side of the fence opposite the window, which was down the side of the house so. I crawl down, I got under the window.

The window was ajar, but it was a sliding window. It was ajar but it wasn't wide enough for someone to get out of.

So I'm texting the Senior Sergeant to say, he needs to make it wider before he gets out of it, if he can, otherwise he will get caught up.

He's getting back to me saying, he can't do anything at the moment, can you help him with that, so it was a lot of texting to and fro, we were doing this for probably an hour to hour and a half.

Cause we only have the one chance, if he didn't get out the window or got hung up, there was a chance he could have got stabbed.

In the end, we had it so that I was under the window, we had guys set up, one of them was giving me odds through the fence to say what was going on.

And we had a plan to say, as soon as that window is pushed ajar, stand up and grab him, pull him through, as he is climbing out, fall to the ground, and that will impact the crook if he is moving forward to do anything.

Outro Voiceover: Episode 5: Inside the Special Operations Group, is out on January 14.

Outro Voiceover: Police Life: The Experts is a Victoria Police production.

Your host is Belinda Batty.

This episode was written by Adam Shand.

Additional writing and research by Jesse Wray-McCann.

It was produced by Adam Shand and Jesse Wray-McCann.

The senior producer was Ros Jaguar.

Voice acting in this episode by Jesse Wray-McCann, Erin Mitchell, Sergeant Luke Western, Sarah Vanin and Cass Stanghi.

Audio production and original music by Mat Dwyer.

Theme song by Veaceslav Draganov.

Executive produced by Beck Angel.

This podcast was created by the Media, Communications and Engagement Department at Victoria Police.

To learn more about the work of Victoria Police, go to police.vic.gov.au.