A traffic controller has told the state’s corruption commission that he went behind his “wife’s back” to pay kickbacks to a Transport for NSW (TfNSW) official, in order to win lucrative roadwork contracts.<\/p>\n
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is investigating allegations that Ibrahim Helmy, who worked for TfNSW for 15 years, received $11.5 million in payments for helping contractors secure roadwork jobs, often at inflated prices.<\/p>\n
Mr Helmy failed to appear at ICAC earlier this month and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.<\/p>\n
The whereabouts of former Transport for NSW employee Ibrahim Helmy is unknown. Supplied: NSW Police (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n
On Thursday, operations manager at Direct Traffic Pty Ltd, Adam Spilsted, became emotional, telling the commission he would pass cash to Mr Helmy “under the table” at a Merrylands restaurant to help secure contracts for the business.<\/p>\n
“Working for a government agency such as Transport for NSW is a privilege,” he said, choking back tears.<\/p>\n
“I’ve done the wrong thing … It’s something I should have \u2026 reported.”<\/p>\n
Mr Helmy is alleged to have earned more than $11 million in kickbacks from the scheme. (Supplied: ICAC)<\/p>\n
Mr Spilsted told the hearing that Mr Helmy initially offered to help him win state government contracts because he knew Mr Spilsted’s father.<\/p>\n
The ICAC earlier heard that about $48 million in contracts had been awarded by TfNSW to Direct Traffic Pty Ltd between 2018 and 2025.<\/p>\n
Mr Spilsted said Mr Helmy gave him tender evaluation criteria, as well as confidential information on other companies’ bids.<\/p>\n
However, during one of their meetings at Merrylands library in 2018, Mr Helmy allegedly asked for money.<\/p>\n
“In order for me to give you this work, I would expect some type of payment,” Mr Helmy allegedly said.<\/p>\n
Counsel Assisting, Rob Rob Ranken SC, asked Mr Spilsted whether he understood the gravity of that request.<\/p>\n
“Did you appreciate that what he was proposing was improper?” Mr Ranken asked.<\/p>\n
“It was very improper,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Mr Spilsted replied.<\/p>\n
Adam Spilsted said he later told his wife, Mechelina Van Der Ende-Plakke, who is a director of Direct Traffic Pty Ltd, that Mr Helmy had asked for money.<\/p>\n
“She didn’t want to give him any money whatsoever,” he told the hearing.<\/p>\n
According to Mr Spilsted, Mr Helmy threatened to stop helping him win contracts unless he got paid.<\/p>\n
“So, what I did was went behind my wife’s back,” he told the commission.<\/p>\n
Mr Spilsted said he initially paid Mr Helmy using gift cards, but was soon told “the gift cards aren’t cutting it”.<\/p>\n
He later made several large cash withdrawals and handed them to Mr Helmy both in his car and “under the table” at an Egyptian restaurant in Merrylands.<\/p>\n
However, as the relationship continued and more contracts were awarded to the business, Mr Spilsted said the transport official wanted more money.<\/p>\n
“Every time that I’d see him, he’d ask for money all the time,” he said.<\/p>\n
Hearing played secretly-recorded phone call![\"bullions](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/dfdc7607a1fe2b0603f8cd9430dfdb89\")
<\/p>\n
The inquiry was told that Ibrahim Helmy received millions in cryptocurrency, gold and cash payments. (Supplied: ICAC)<\/p>\n
Mr Spilsted told the hearing that Mr Helmy ultimately asked him to pay about $600,000.<\/p>\n
He said that when his wife found out about that demand, she threatened to “dob” Mr Helmy in to TfNSW.<\/p>\n
Mr Spilsted said he warned her against going to authorities, saying they would both get into a “lot of trouble” because “we’d already paid him”.<\/p>\n
The hearing was then played a phone conversation allegedly between Ms Van Der Ende-Plakke and Mr Helmy, recorded by Mr Spilsted.<\/p>\n
In the recording, she told Mr Helmy she was “shocked”.<\/p>\n
“If we would go ahead with this [and] it would ever come out, it would not be good,” she said.<\/p>\n
She told Mr Helmy she only wanted her company to win contracts based on merit.<\/p>\n
The man \u2014 allegedly Mr Helmy \u2014 responded by trying to reassure her.<\/p>\n
“I don’t see it as badly as you’re seeing it,” he said.<\/p>\n
However, he later conceded “it is not 100 per cent legal”.<\/p>\n
The hearing continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A traffic controller has told the state’s corruption commission that he went behind his “wife’s back” to pay…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":89074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[59603,4740,17628,59605,59604,59602,59597,59599,17365,59601,50,59606,59600,6187,59598],"class_list":{"0":"post-89073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-adam-spilsted","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-corruption","11":"tag-counsel-assisting","12":"tag-direct-traffic-pty-ltd","13":"tag-ibrahim-helmy","14":"tag-icac","15":"tag-independent-commission-against-corruption","16":"tag-inquiry","17":"tag-kickbacks","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-rob-rob-ranken-sc","20":"tag-tfnsw","21":"tag-transport","22":"tag-transport-for-nsw"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}