Former V/Line chief executive James Pinder has been jailed for two years and eight months over a corruption scandal involving multimillion-dollar public transport cleaning contracts, bringing one of Victoria’s most closely watched anti-corruption investigations to a dramatic conclusion.
Pinder, 58, was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria on Thursday after pleading guilty to misconduct in public office. He must serve at least one year and nine months before becoming eligible for parole. The West London-born former rail executive also faces the prospect of deportation from Australia after completing his prison term.
The offending centred on Pinder’s relationship with Transclean co-director George Haritos, whose company secured and retained lucrative cleaning work across Victoria’s rail network. The court heard Pinder failed to disclose their relationship while receiving $330,000 in secret payments that influenced him to favour Transclean.
The contracts at the centre of the scandal were worth about $40 million initially and, after variations and extensions, had grown to more than $54 million by the end of March 2019. Transclean was responsible for cleaning trains and other facilities connected with V/Line and Metro Trains.
The case emerged from the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s Operation Esperance, an investigation into allegations of serious corrupt conduct in tendering and procurement at V/Line and Metro Trains. IBAC used covert surveillance, intercepted telephone conversations and hidden cameras during the investigation.
The investigation became public in 2020, when extraordinary evidence about cash payments, private financial arrangements and undisclosed relationships was aired during IBAC examinations.
Pinder had joined V/Line as chief executive in 2016 after previously working in senior roles in the British and Australian rail industries, including at Metro Trains. It was through his earlier work at Metro that he had developed a relationship with Haritos.
IBAC hearings were told Pinder and Haritos communicated using prepaid “burner” phones that had been subscribed in the names of Transclean associates. Evidence presented to the commission suggested the phones were being used from soon after Pinder became V/Line chief executive.
The financial dealings eventually proved central to the case.
The court heard that when Pinder encountered difficulties financing the purchase of a Williamstown property, money linked to Haritos and his associates was channelled to him.
About $100,000 was provided towards the property deposit, while a further $220,000 was transferred after Pinder’s loan application for settlement was refused. On another occasion, covert surveillance captured Haritos placing $10,000 in cash in an envelope into Pinder’s vehicle. Those payments brought the corrupt benefit received by Pinder to $330,000.
The bulk of the money was ultimately used to help purchase the Williamstown home. The property was reported to have cost about $2.5 million.
Pinder was stood down from V/Line in August 2020 as the corruption investigation intensified. Following his appearance at the IBAC public hearings in October that year, the V/Line board terminated his employment and moved to end its contract with Transclean.
At the time, V/Line said the conduct raised during the hearings was unacceptable and stressed that employees and contractors were expected to maintain high standards of integrity. Metro Trains also terminated the employment of senior manager Peter Bollas and later ended its relationship with Transclean.
The investigation did not end with Pinder.
In December 2022, IBAC announced charges against seven people following Operation Esperance. Pinder was initially charged with four counts of misconduct in public office, four counts of receiving secret commissions and one count of conspiracy to solicit secret commissions. Others charged included a former Metro Trains manager, Transclean directors and employees, and a lawyer associated with one of the company’s staff members.
Thursday’s sentencing also resulted in jail for Haritos, 71.
Haritos pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to give a secret commission and two charges of giving secret commissions. Judge Fiona Todd sentenced him to two years and three months in prison, with a non-parole period of one year and five months.
Judge Todd described Haritos as the “common denominator” across much of the offending. His family was in court as the sentence was delivered.
Other people connected with Transclean avoided immediate imprisonment.
Haritos’s brother-in-law and Transclean director Alex Kyritsis, 69, received a community correction order after pleading guilty to conspiracy to give a secret commission.
Steven Kyritsis, 42, Haritos’s nephew and a Transclean employee, was also given a community correction order after pleading guilty to giving a secret commission.
Maria Tsakopoulos, 45, who had been in a relationship with Haritos, received a community correction order over conspiracy to destroy evidence and giving a secret commission.
Her offending included involvement in the creation of a sham document intended to provide an explanation for the movement of $320,000 into Pinder’s bank account, according to evidence before the court.
Solicitor Steven Collin had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to destroy a document and was convicted and sentenced to a one-year community correction order.
Former Metro Trains manager Peter Bollas was dealt with separately in 2024. He admitted receiving $30,000 in secret commissions from Transclean, including payments of $10,000 and $20,000 in 2020, and was ultimately sentenced to a three-year and six-month community correction order.
The wider IBAC investigation also exposed serious concerns about the integrity of procurement and contract management within Victoria’s public transport system.
Public hearings examined allegations of improper contract extensions, secret payments, undisclosed personal relationships and attempts by people connected with Transclean and Metro to protect the company’s commercial interests.
In one episode aired during the investigation, intercepted calls allegedly captured discussions involving Haritos, Steven Kyritsis and Bollas about interfering with testing of a rival cleaning product during the COVID-19 period.
The scandal became particularly damaging because V/Line is a government-owned corporation responsible for Victoria’s regional passenger rail network and Pinder occupied its most senior executive position.
The court’s decision sends Pinder from one of Victoria’s highest-profile publicly funded transport jobs to prison.
His immigration status now creates another consequence.
Australian migration law provides for mandatory visa cancellation in certain circumstances where a non-citizen is serving full-time imprisonment and has been sentenced to 12 months or more in jail. A person affected by mandatory cancellation can seek revocation of that decision, meaning the final immigration outcome can depend on subsequent processes.
ABC reported that Pinder faces deportation to England after his prison sentence. Judge Todd highlighted the uncertainty surrounding his future in Australia, telling him: “As of today you are uncertain as to whether you will be at liberty in the Australian community again.”
The sentencing comes almost six years after the corruption allegations first exploded publicly at IBAC hearings and four years after criminal charges were announced.
What began as scrutiny of cleaning contracts worth tens of millions of dollars ultimately exposed a network of secret financial dealings involving senior transport officials and a government contractor — costing Pinder his career, his position in Australia and now his liberty.
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