SINCE THE WILD PROSPECTING RUSHES of the 1890's, Western Australia has been a major source of gold. The soft yellow metal is found in the deep mines of Kalgoorlie's fabulous 'golden mile'; in the desert heat at Telfer and other remote mine sites; and fossicked out from old creek beds and the slopes of the many auriferous ridges in the State. Because of its continuous supply of the precious commodity, the capital of Western Australia, Perth, has operated one of the few Mints in the country, a place where the raw metal is melted, purified and moulded into bars of gleaming wealth. The bullion is stacked in vaults below the well-guarded battlements of the Perth Mint, secured from attack by numerous electronic devices and armed watchmen.

On 22 June 1982, with false signatures on three stolen blank cheques, three separately-engaged armed courier services arrived at the Mint. They were separately admitted and were given bars of gold with a combined value of $650,000. Following their telephoned instructions, the armed vehicles delivered the boxes of gold to an office in a business house only 3km away, where a temporary secretary unknowingly signed for the receipt of the 'goods'. Another temporary employee, also instructed by telephone and CB radio, arrived and picked up the `goods', allegedly taking the three heavy boxes to Jandakot Airport. From that moment the gold disappeared. No trace of it has ever been found! Neither has there been any sign of gold bullion stolen from a North Kalgurli Mines shipment in February of that same year, valued at some $350,000. Nor has any trace been uncovered of some $250,000 worth of gold bars taken from TAA Flight 15 from Perth to Melbourne just eleven days before the Mint parted with its gold. Nor have any leads been uncovered in the theft of $15,000 in gold coins 'lost' only nine days after the Mint job, between Perth city and Kewdale freight terminal.

The grand total of unrecovered bullion stolen in Western Australia in the first six months of 1982 exceeds $1,250,000. On 4 March 1983 three brothers, Raymond, Peter and Brian Mickelberg were convicted of the Mint swindle. Raymond received 20 years with a minimum of 12 years, Peter received 16 years with a minimum of 9 years, and Brian received 12 years with a minimum of 7 years.
Subsequently, on 4 November 1983, Brian Mickelberg was released from gaol following a successful appeal against his conviction.

This book does not argue whether or not the Mickelberg brothers, Raymond and Peter, were a party to the swindling of the Mint. It does, however, exhibit the most profound doubt as to the presentation of the Crown case, offering material which indicates that a far more serious conspiracy was possible: A conspiracy to manufacture evidence, both forensic and confessional, in a deliberate and successful plan to convict men who might otherwise have been acquitted for lack of evidence.
It is an indictment of unsound police methods, and of a cynical legal system which knowingly accepts the tainted evidence of unsigned 'confessions', unsupported by independent corroboration either by audio tape or video recordings, or the presence of a lawyer or independent person - and denied consistently by the alleged confessors.
The system is known as 'verballing'.

Newspapers across Australia recorded that the Mickelbergs were given some of the heaviest sentences ever meted out in this country for a crime which involved no individual victim and in which there was not the slightest hint of violence or public risk.
The Mickelbergs are now serving sentences, the newspapers pointed out, that were heavier than those given for multiple rapes, armed robbery, crimes of violence, and even outright murder.