Police Minister Joe Szakacs has confirmed that an internal SA Police investigation is underway to establish whether Assistant Commissioner Linda Fellows had a conflict of interest when SA Police decided last year not to oppose Adelaide Oval’s bid to sell liquor in aluminium cans.

Fellows has been on the Adelaide Football Club’s board since 2015 and was elected deputy chair in March 2021.

As Assistant Commissioner, Operations Support Service, she has oversight of SA Police’s Licensing Enforcement Branch (LEB), which in July 2022 supported a Stadium Management Authority (SMA) application to vary its liquor license so it could sell alcohol in cans.

Police had initially opposed the application on public safety grounds but reversed its position after the SMA agreed to a series of conditions, including that the change would be a 12-month trial and there would be public stadium announcements warning against throwing cans.

The police union was vocally opposed to SA Police’s change of position and launched a failed legal challenge against the liquor licensing variation.

SA Police says the decision was “solely” made by the head of the LEB, not Fellows.

In March, SA-Best MLC Frank Pangallo accused Fellows in parliament of having “obvious conflicts” over the decision given the Adelaide Football Club “stood to benefit financially from increased revenue from liquor sales”.

He asked the Police Minister whether he would “ask the Police Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner Fellows to explain why she didn’t recuse herself and openly declare a conflict of interest in overseeing SAPOL’s involvement in the AOSMA’s application, given her significant position as deputy chair on the Adelaide Crows Football Club Board”.

Assistant Commissioner Linda Fellows. Photo: Adelaide Football Club

He also asked Szakacs whether he would “order an investigation to determine whether there have been code of conduct violations”.

Szakacs’ response was tabled in Hansard on May 30. He said he had been advised that SA Police’s intervention on the aluminium cans matter was “solely” made by the officer in charge of the LEB, Chief Inspector Greg Hutchins.

The Police Minister also revealed that an internal investigation is underway “as to whether Assistant Commissioner Fellows had a conflict of interest”.

“SAPOL advises that the decision to intervene with the Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority’s (AOSMA) application was made solely by the officer in charge of Licensing Enforcement Branch,” Szakacs said.

“The application, and the process of handling the application, was consistent with how other such applications are managed by them.

“As to whether Assistant Commissioner Fellows had a conflict of interest is now the subject of an internal investigation and is subject to confidentiality provisions relative to section 45 of the Police Complaints and Discipline Act 2016 (the PCDA).

“SAPOL further advises that the decision to engage with AOSMA and discuss their variation to a licence condition is consistent with normal business practices under the LL (Liquor Licensing) Act.”

InDaily asked Szakacs whether he had ordered the investigation into the conflict of interest claims. In a statement, he said: “As Minister, I’m completely independent from any SAPOL internal investigation.”

He also reiterated SA Police’s advice that the “decision to intervene with AOSMA’s application was made by the officer in charge of the Licensing Enforcement Branch (Hutchins)”.

Section 45 of the PCDA prohibits disclosure of information connected with investigations into police complaints unless authorised by the Police Commissioner, Independent Commission Against Corruption or Office of Public Integrity, with maximum penalties of $2500 or six-months jail.

InDaily asked SA Police what prompted the investigation, when it is expected to be completed and whether SA Police and Fellows maintained that she had no influence in decision-making on the matter.

In response, a police spokesperson said: “The decision to withdraw SAPOL’s intervention was made solely by the Officer in Charge of Licensing Enforcement Branch.

“This decision was made independently without favour or interference by any person or body. The application and the process of handling the application was ‘business as usual’.

“Confidentiality provisions outlined in the Police Complaints and Disciplinary Act apply to internal police investigations and therefore no further comment on the status of the investigation will be made.”

The Police Association of SA (PASA) declined to comment, citing the confidentially associated with police investigations.

On March 14, after the Fellows accusations were made in parliament, PASA president Mark Carroll said the union supported an independent inquiry into the matter.

Pangallo told InDaily today: “The handling and oversight of this entire issue has been completely and utterly unsatisfactory – but nobody in a position of power has been called upon to explain it.

“The government and SAPOL have casually wiped their hands of properly investigating the whole process that was involved in approving the AOSMA’s application to sell alcohol in cans.

“While we’ve had no information to date about incidents or injuries caused by cans being thrown by irresponsible supporters, we did see what could happen at the LIV golf tournament where fans were encouraged to throw cans and plastic cups onto the fairway – a practice that was immediately stopped after a staff member was hit and injured.”

An Adelaide Oval spokesperson this afternoon said there have been “no reported adverse behavioural incidents involving cans” during the 12-month trial, which is now in its ninth month.

“Beverages in cans have been enthusiastically adopted by our patrons at Adelaide Oval,” the spokesperson said.

“We are now just over nine months into the 12-month trial, with 49 per cent of alcoholic beverages sold during that time being served in cans.

“This means we have virtually halved our use of plastic cups since the trial commenced. Given the impending ban of single-use plastic beverage containers on 1 September 2024, the trial is proving informative as we actively consider alternatives to plastics.”

The police spokesperson said the trial would continue to be monitored by SA Police and the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner.