SlugGate Scandal & I Cook Foods

I Cook Foods was a family-owned food manufacturing business that employed 41 workers at its Dandenong facility.  Established by Ian Cook and his wife Dena Cook in 1985, I Cook Foods had grown into the largest private provider of delivered meals in Victoria, Australia.

The business provided more than 25,000 meals a week, servicing the charitable sector through “Meals on Wheels” and directly at hospitals and aged-care facilities. I Cook Foods was a genuine family business, with Ian and Dena’s son Ben eventually taking up the role of General Manager.

The Cook Family

Ian, Dena and Ben didn’t just care about their family. They cared about many other families. They made a point of employing people from the local area who needed a little extra help in life. These people proved to be great workers and wonderful people to work with.

At the time of I Cook Food’s closure and destruction by the Victorian State Government, some 15% of the company’s staff had a disability but were nevertheless employed on full wages, just like anyone else.

The Corruption

It took a corrupt local council and a corrupt state government a handful of weeks to comprehensively destroy everything the Cook family had worked for over so many years. This closure and destruction of an important, commercially-successful and genuinely ethical business occurred in February 2019, just before the global pandemic took hold in Australia.

But if you read on, you’ll see how the destruction of I Cook Foods actually began a decade earlier.  You’ll see how the men and women behind the world’s longest pandemic lockdown started their wave of destruction at I Cook Foods.  You will see how a “regulator” in fact became a “commercial competitor”.

Community Chef

In 2009, the then Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews and the then Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Anthony Albanese, created a catering business called Community Chef based in Altona.

Community Chef was funded by the State and Federal governments as well as a number of Victorian Councils, including the City of Greater Dandenong where the I Cook Foods production facility was located.

Flush with millions of dollars of taxpayer and ratepayer support, Community Chef would go on to compete with a number of private catering businesses, including I Cook Foods. One of those businesses, ISS, went broke and 80 people lost their jobs because of Community Chef.

Millions of Tax Payers Dollars Lost

By 2019, the books of Community Chef showed that it had lost over $30 million.  How it managed to “lose” this extraordinary sum of money – completely funded by the Victorian public – and where this money actually “went” should be a matter of the gravest public concern.  

Clearly, this sum of money was not “lost” in the course of normal commercial operations (as any such business would simply otherwise collapse) but rather the Community Chef “venture” was sustained by the State and some local Governments for “other reasons”.   It never made an annual profit.

Also, by 2019, the former Health Minister who set up Community Chef, Daniel Andrews, had not only become the Premier of Victoria but had been the Premier already for some 5 years.

#Sluggate #ICookFoods #IanCook #AntiCorruption #DanAndrews #BrettSutton #AnthonyAlbanese #CommunityChef #ElizabethGarlic #JohnBenny #DandenongCouncil 

On 13 January 2019 an 86 year old woman was admitted to the Knox Private Hospital in Wantirna with diarrhoea and other symptoms consistent with food poisoning.  This woman had battled Ischaemic Heart Disease for 15 years. She lived alone in a retirement home and no-one knew what she had eaten shortly before she entered the hospital.

Although she entered the hospital with clear symptoms of food poisoning, the elderly woman wasn’t tested for listeria for many days after her first admission, as indeed she should have been.  Finally, she was tested on the 23rd of January, 2019. She tested positive for listeria monocytogenes.

Media reports and speeches in the Victorian Parliament subsequently confirmed that the treatment she then received, medicine for the listeria monocytogenes while in hospital, was successful and further blood tests showed she was clear of any listeria.

As was required by law, the listeria was reported to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Health Department did an investigation to find out what the woman had eaten in hospital.  The investigation included the patient’s daughter.  The daughter said her mother liked eating sandwiches.  Two and a half years later, the daughter would change her story and claim she saw her mother eating a sandwich she believed was from I Cook Foods, in the hospital’s Emergency Department.

Throughout her stay in the hospital the elderly woman was on a soft food diet, meaning she was not to be given sandwiches, unless they were made by the hospital. Moreover, the sandwiches in the hospital’s Emergency Department were not the type of sandwiches from I Cook Foods which the Department later falsely claimed were connected to the elderly woman’s death.

Despite knowing the elderly woman was on a soft food diet and would not have been given a sandwich from I Cook Foods, the Department of Health and Human Services still asked the City of Greater Dandenong to investigate I Cook Foods. 

A council officer, Kim Rogerson, then took samples of the sandwiches and sandwich ingredients and swabs of the food preparation area.

The 86 year old woman subsequently, tragically died of acute pulmonary oedema  caused by Ischaemic Heart Disease. The death certificate noted that the 86 year old woman had suffered from this condition for many years, and crucially, her death certificate made it clear that she did not die from Listeria Monocytogenes at all.

The death certificate stated she had died with listeria, and not from listeria. But even this wasn’t accurate. In fact, results from the woman’s blood tests show that she was completely free from listeria at the time of her passing.

On the 18th of February 2019 the Department of Health and Human Services told Dandenong Council that several of the food samples taken from I Cook Foods had tested positive for Listeria Monocytogenes. Crucially the Department didn’t indicate the level of listeria, because at that stage, nobody knew.  The vital tests required to know this information had not been conducted, and wouldn’t be conducted until after the I Cook Foods business had been closed on the orders of the Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton.  These tests should have been done before I Cook was closed.

Later that same day, City of Greater Dandenong Environmental Health Officer (EHO) Elizabeth Garlick attended the premises at 2/12 Zenith Road, Dandenong South, Victoria.

Most unusually Garlick was not wearing her body-camera during this visit. This was highly unusual given that Garlick did wear her body camera during every other visit she made to I Cook Foods, and also that she claimed under oath during a Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry that she wears a body-camera during inspections as a personal security measure.

During this visit on 18th of  February 2019, Garlick claimed to have found a live slug in a corner of the premises. She took several photos of the slug but then left the slug where she claimed to have found it.

Crucially, there were no slug trails around the slug, and the photos taken by Garlick also do not show any slug trails. The type of slug, limas maximus, is nocturnal, and simply shouldn’t be moving around during the day. Limas maximus is commonly known as the Leopard Slug and the slug Garlick took photographs of was identified as such by the Museum of Victoria.

Further, I Cook Food’s long standing pest controller, Hayes Pest Control, had attended the food premises only 3 days prior and had not seen any indication whatsoever of any slug activity. The floor was also chemically washed every day.

It would later emerge that two other food businesses which had been inspected by Garlick believed she had used allegations concerning rodents to close them down. One alleged that Garlick had planted a dead mouse at their premises.  The other claimed Garlick had said there was a dead mouse under a piece of machinery, and even briefly showed the business owner a photo of a dead mouse on her phone.  When the machinery was later removed there was no dead mouse under it, and no signs of anything that might confirm the dead mouse ever existed.  Both businesses were destroyed by Garlick’s health and safety inspection reports.

On the 20th and the 21st of February, 2019, Garlick returned to the I Cook factory, this time with her immediate boss, Leanne Johnson, Co-ordinator of Public Health, for the City of Greater Dandenong.

On the 21st of February, 2019, at 12.08pm Johnson illegally verbally shut I Cook Foods in Dr Sutton’s name.

Then at 8.21pm on the 21st February 2019, an email was sent to then Acting Chief Health Officer, Dr Brett Sutton, amongst others.  It was written by an employee of Dr Sutton’s Department, Finn Romanes and recommended that Dandenong Council issue a closure order.

At 9.30pm on 21 February 2019, Dr Sutton and the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Greater Dandenong, John Bennie, spoke by telephone.  During the telephone call Bennie claimed he could not issue the Closure Order on I Cook Foods because Bennie was on the Board of Community Chef and therefore had a conflict of interest.

Sutton’s Department of Health and Human Services had also invested millions in Community Chef, and therefore Dr Sutton very obviously shared the same conflict of interest.  

Regardless, at about 10.00pm, on 21 February 2019, Dr Sutton signed and issued the Closure Order in his own name.

Early in the morning on 22 February 2019, the Closure Order was stuck up on the window of I Cook Foods as required by Victorian law.

On the 20th and the 21st of February, 2019, Garlick returned to the I Cook factory, this time with her immediate boss, Leanne Johnson, Co-ordinator of Public Health, for the City of Greater Dandenong.

On the 21st of February, 2019, at 12.08pm Johnson illegally verbally shut I Cook Foods in Dr Sutton’s name.

Then at 8.21pm on the 21st February 2019, an email was sent to then Acting Chief Health Officer, Dr Brett Sutton, amongst others.  It was written by an employee of Dr Sutton’s Department, Finn Romanes and recommended that Dandenong Council issue a closure order.

At 9.30pm on 21 February 2019, Dr Sutton and the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Greater Dandenong, John Bennie, spoke by telephone.  During the telephone call Bennie claimed he could not issue the Closure Order on I Cook Foods because Bennie was on the Board of Community Chef and therefore had a conflict of interest.

Dr Brett Sutton’s Department of Health and Human Services had also invested millions in Community Chef, and therefore Dr Sutton very obviously shared the same conflict of interest.  Regardless, at about 10.00pm, on 21 February 2019, Dr Sutton signed and issued the Closure Order in his own name.

Early in the morning on 22 February 2019, the Closure Order was stuck up on the window of I Cook Foods as required by Victorian law.

That same morning, the 22nd of February, 2019, the Board of Community Chef met at the RACV City Club on Bourke Street, Melbourne at 9.30am.

It’s recorded in the minutes of that meeting that from 10.10am to 12.45pm the Board meeting was suspended for a ‘Business SWOT Analysis session.’  (“SWOT” stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats”.)  Clearly I Cook Foods had been a threat.  Now the Ordered closure and destruction of I Cook Foods long-standing business created a new and huge commercial opportunity for Community Chef.

The minutes from the Community Chef Board Meeting record that John Bennie told the Board that a Closure Order had been served on I Cook Foods. This was effectively “insider trading”. The Board agreed that they should contact the Municipal Association of Victoria and ask them to get in touch with all of I Cook’s customers.  This is before any other manufacturer knew what had happened.

Crucially it was not until 2:30 PM that afternoon that I Cook Foods was publicly and albeit falsely, named as a potential source of a ‘listeria outbreak’.

Dr Brett Sutton made these false claims at press conference which was widely reported in the Victorian and National media and even some international Media.

On 23rd of February 2019 Brett Sutton’s Department issued a varied Closure Order, of the same date, on I Cook Foods.  This order added further requirements which prevented I Cook Foods from re-opening.   

But then, on the 28th of February 2019, results of tests ordered by Sutton’s Department revealed that the level of Listeria Mono detected in food samples taken from I Cook Foods was less than 10 Colony Forming Units.  In simple terms this means that the samples taken from I Cook Foods were ten times safer than they were required to be by law.

However, these results were hidden from I Cook Foods by Paul GoldSmith, the lead investigator from the Department of Health and Human Services for a number of weeks, by which time I Cook Foods had lost all its contracts.

On the 12th of March 2019, I Cook Foods commenced proceedings against the Department of Health and Human Services in the Melbourne Magistrates Court seeking a judicial review of the varied Closure Order, which the Department had issued to prevent I Cook Foods from re-opening. There was a strong media presence in court that day.

The matter was set to be heard again on the 8th and 9th of May. But before the varied Closure Order could be reviewed by the court, it was revoked by Sutton’s Department, meaning evidence was never heard in an open court, where people are under oath.

On the 2nd of April, 2019, the Chairman of Community Chef,  John Christophersen wrote to Denise Laughlin who was Acting Assistant Director of the Department of Health and Human Services. 

In this letter, Community Chef indicated an intention to draw down $800,000 of a $1 million loan facility and requested further funds from the Department of Health and Human Services. No reason for the $800,000 drawdown was provided by Community Chef in this letter.

Despite there being no explanation as to what this money was for, the additional funds were subsequently provided to Community Chef by the Department of Health and Human Services.

In April 2021, I Cook Foods was told by lawyers acting in another matter, that Dr Sutton was suspected by Victoria Police officer Detective Sergeant Ash Penry allegedly paid $800,000 to shut down I Cook Foods.

The lawyers who provided this information independently to I Cook Foods were not aware of the letter written by Community Chef to Denise Laughlin from the Department of Health and Human Services which detailed the need for the $800,000 drawdown.

I Cook Foods has no direct knowledge of whether Dr Sutton received any or all of this $800,000, but there is significant circumstantial evidence that supports the need for this unaccounted $800,000 to be investigated in forensic detail.

Firstly, a Community Chef Board paper obtained by I Cook Foods from the same period makes mentions of the $800,000 drawdown, but again fails to identify or specify the intended use of this money.

Secondly, the lawyers who informed I Cook Foods of the alleged bribe are currently seeking documents under Victoria’s Freedom of Information laws which relate to “the questioning of Dr Sutton by Victoria Police between June and August 2020”.   

Victoria Police are aggressively opposing this FOI Application, claiming the documents are exempt from FOI.  Victoria Police is neither denying, nor confirming, the existence of any such documents.

Having failed to destroy Ian Cook and I Cook Foods through the illegal and illegitimate Closure Orders, the City of Greater Dandenong and the Department of Health and Human Services changed their tactics.  This time, they had decided to use the criminal courts.  The initial plan was to charge and potentially jail Ian Cook over false food safety breaches.

On the 7th of June 2019, I Cook Foods and Ian Cook were each served with 48 separate charges for offences under the Food Act. The Brief of Evidence used in this matter included photos of the live slug which was allegedly planted at the premises. The photos had been altered by the City of Greater Dandenong to remove a small white item which appears to be a fragment of facial tissue. Garlick had been seen carrying a number of tissues in the front pocket of her smock on the day the slug was “discovered”.

Former City of Greater Dandenong inspector, turned whistle-blower, Kim Rogerson, later provided police with a sworn affidavit stating that she witnessed Elizabeth Garlick altering the image of the slug and its surroundings on Garlick’s work computer.

The Brief against I Cook Foods and Ian Cook also included video from body worn cameras taken during various inspections of the Food Premises. Although it should be noted there was no video from Garlick’s inspection on the 18th of February, 2019, because she mysteriously didn’t wear a body camera during that inspection when she claimed to have found the slug.

The video footage presented to the court in the criminal matter had been edited by the City of Greater Dandenong. The metadata of that video indicates that the video was modified by Garlick in March 2019. Former Environmental Health Inspector Kim Rogerson provided Victoria Police with a sworn statement indicating she saw Elizabeth Garlick editing the body camera vision.

On the 3rd of October, 2019, lawyers acting for I Cook Foods served a subpoena on the City of Greater Dandenong for the production of documents. Specifically, the Council was told that it would be required to provide unedited copies of the photos and body camera videos relied on by the informant in the prosecution.

Once Council realised this, it dropped all 96 charges against Ian Cook and I Cook Foods.

So far, Ian Cook is absurdly the only person ever to face any criminal charges in relation to the illegal closure of I Cook Foods.  That’s despite the fact that Ian was the victim.

On the 14th of November, 2019, I Cook Foods met with members of the Dandenong Crime Investigations Unit. The officers involved were Detectives Ash Penry, Rick Mokos and Mark Hawker.

After this meeting, I Cook Foods prepared a lengthy 16 volume brief of evidence, which included video and audio clips saved on a computer hard drive.  The brief of evidence was created with the extraordinary assistance of retired Victoria Police Detectives Paul Brady and Rod Porter.  Neither man was paid for their work, with both men volunteering to work for more than a year because they were so concerned that a major miscarriage of justice had occurred.

The Brief of Evidence was collected by Det. Snr. Sgt Penry on the 24th of May, 2020.  In a Briefing Note to his superiors, dated 22nd of June 2020, Det. Snr. Sgt Penry commented ‘it is apparent that the prosecution of iCook Foods was malicious’ . 

He recommended ‘that this matter continue to be investigated to identify any alleged corruption or misuse of office.’   He also listed a number of “persons of interest” including Council CEO John Bennie, Council Inspectors Elizabeth Garlick and Leanne Johnson as well as the Victorian Chief Health Officer, Dr Brett Sutton.

On the day that Briefing Note was sent to his bosses, Snr. Sgt Penry was informed that he was to be taken off the investigation and was subsequently sent on forced leave.  Snr. Sgt. Penry was informed that the brief would now be sent to Det. Insp. Kerr at Moorabbin CIU for independent assessment.

During his period of investigation, Det. Insp. Kerr gave I Cook Foods numerous indications that he understood that crimes had occurred and prosecutions were required. However, Det. Insp. Kerr was also subsequently sent on forced leave and then on 20 August 2020, I Cook Foods was informed that Det. Sgt. Chris Lewis from Casey CIU would now investigate the matter.

During the period of investigation by Det. Sgt. Lewis, he was also sent on forced leave, thus further delaying the investigation.

Finally, on 31 March 2021 Det. Sgt. Chris Lewis and his immediate superior, Det Snr. Sgt Glen Cruse met with I Cook Foods to state that the investigation had now been closed and no charges would be laid.

However, when Det. Sgt. Lewis returned the brief of evidence, a digital copy of the Briefing Note written by Det. Sen. Sgt. Ash Penry, which named Dr Sutton as a “person of interest”, had been inexplicably saved to I Cook Foods external hard drive.

Details of this Briefing Note was reported in the Herald Sun newspaper on the same morning that Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton was appearing on Melbourne radio station 3AW.  When asked about the “Briefing Note” and the decision to close the police investigation, the Chief Commissioner declared he would have an investigation into whether the investigation should be re-opened.

The investigation was subsequently re-opened and the Chief Commissioner has been briefed on the finding. I Cook Foods is now waiting to hear from the Chief Commissioner.  No arrests of any persons of interest have been made.

With the criminal charges against Ian Cook and I Cook Foods abandoned by Dandenong Council, I Cook Foods commenced proceedings against the Department of Health and Human Services alleging misfeasance in public offence and seeking compensation. 

Then on the 16th of February, 2021, I Cook Food’s claim was amended to include the City of Greater Dandenong.

This case is set to be heard by the Supreme Court of Victoria over 15 days in February 2022.  Recently, esteemed criminal barrister Robert Richter QC joined forces with legal powerhouse civil barrister Dr Michelle Sharp to represent I Cook Foods.

Together this formidable team is looking forward to I Cook’s days in court with a particular focus in the up-coming cross-examination of key witnesses during proceedings.

A lot has happened since the last update.  In November 2023 Ian’s case against the Department of Health and Human Services finally ended. For tactical legal reasons, the City of Greater Dandenong had been dropped from this proceeding.

Ultimately, Supreme Court Justice Michael McDonald ruled that the closure of I Cook Foods was “invalid”, but in an extraordinary and widely debated move, he chose not to give I Cook Foods any compensation in the form of damages, even though he was ruling that the State Government had acted unlawfully.

Immediately after that decision, Ian issued proceedings against the City of Greater Dandenong for malicious prosecution.  The allegations of malicious prosecution relate to the laying of 96 charges against Ian and I Cook Foods, which the Council later dropped.

In response, the Council spent hundreds of thousands of ratepayer’s dollars in an appeal to the Supreme Court to have the malicious prosecution case thrown out. But in the end, the Court ruled against Council and ordered Dandenong Council to pay Ian’s costs. It is estimated that to date, Dandenong Council has wasted over $1.5 million rate-payers money over the SlugGate scandal.

Ian is now seeking public support through a dedicated GoFundMe campaign to continue his lawsuit against the Council for malicious prosecution. This legal battle aims to expose the wrongdoing against I Cook Foods and ensure that what happened to him never happens to anyone else.

It’s clear no-one inside the Victorian Government, the Department of Health, or the Dandenong Council ever expected Ian Cook and his supporters to get as far as they have.

Most other food producers and indeed most other small business operators would have given up by now, believing the forces against them were simply too powerful to defeat.

But the Cook Family has vowed to fight on, both in the Civil Courts and in time, in the Criminal Courts, to ensure those who have acted illegally are exposed and brought to justice including appropriate jail time.

Ian Cook summed up the stance his family has taken during a recent media interview:

“My family has suffered terribly.  My staff have also suffered in unimaginable ways.  This has cost me my life’s work, and it will most likely cost me everything I have ever owned.  And yes, I do get upset about this. 

But then I have to remind myself, this whole matter is not just about my family, myself and my former employees anymore.  This is about democracy and the kind of country we are willing to live in.  Governments, and corrupt people in those Governments, can’t be allowed to destroy the lives of innocent people. 

We must all take a stand if we ever see this happening.  I just can’t walk away.”