Overview
- The defendants — neurosurgeon Richard William Laherty, spine surgeon Dihan Taranga Aponso and Medivance director Elliott Charles Lacaze — appeared at Brisbane Magistrates Court for first mentions, with cases set to return on February 16.
- The Crime and Corruption Commission and the Office of the Health Ombudsman charged the trio with official corruption and misconduct in public office, with Lacaze also facing fraud counts over alleged secret payments tied to device use.
- Court documents state Laherty, a former Metro South visiting medical officer, part‑owned Medivance with Lacaze, received payments for selecting its products at Princess Alexandra Hospital, and later gave investigators false or misleading accounts.
- Aponso is alleged to have taken payments between 2017 and 2022 tied to surgeries at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, without declaring a conflict of interest to his employer.
- Lacaze is accused of paying surgeons to use Medivance devices and of dishonestly obtaining more than $2.8 million in business, with a fourth person due in court on January 28 and a fifth subject to an arrest warrant.