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Nicholas George Paltos ( – 26 December 2003) was an Australian
doctor
Doctor or The Doctor may refer to:
Personal titles
* Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree
* A medical practitioner, including:
** Physician
** Surgeon
** Dentist
** Veterinary physician
** Optometrist
*Other roles
** ...
who became a convicted criminal.
Early life
Paltos was born Nicholas George Paltos
(or possibly Nicholas John Paltos
[992
Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Worldwide
* Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as fa ...]
CA25">.) in 1940
or 1941
on the small Greek island of
Kastelorizon
The youngest of ten children, his family migrated from Greece to
Melbourne, Australia in 1947.
After the death of his mother in 1949, his family moved to
Sydney in 1955,
where he first became acquainted with
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
, which was to be his
downfall.
Paltos attended school until he was 13, when he left and worked at a chrome metal factory. In 1955, he moved with his father to Sydney, where he worked as an apprentice in a
Sydenham Sydenham may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** Sydenham railway station, Sydney
* Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne
** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...
metal factory, completing a diploma course in electroplating.
Paltos enrolled at Sydney Technical College in 1959 and took two years to complete his matriculation. He then won a scholarship to study
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
at the
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...
in 1962.
After completing studies, he commenced work at the
Sydney Hospital in 1969, and in 1978 took up
private practice Private practice may refer to:
*Private sector practice
**Practice of law
In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiati ...
with rooms in
Woolloomooloo
Woolloomooloo ( ) is a harbourside, inner-city eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Woolloomooloo is 1.5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. It is in a lo ...
.
Career
He studied and worked part-time as a taxi driver and salesman. He also met his future wife, Marie Kratzis, whom he married in January 1967. He completed his studies in 1968 and joined the staff of Sydney Hospital. A year later he was appointed to the emergency and casualty department.
Paltos frequented illegal gaming venues, in particular the Goulburn Club, and racecourses. He knew people who moved in that world, including Graham "Croc" Palmer. He met
George Freeman as a doctor and became friends with him.
In 1978, Paltos took up private practice in Riley Street, Woolloomooloo. His patients included high-flyers such as former NSW Supreme Court chief justice
Laurence Street
Sir Laurence Whistler Street, (3 July 1926 – 21 June 2018) was the 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales. He was the youngest to serve in these viceregal offices since 1844 and ...
, media tycoon
Kerry Packer and broadcaster
John Laws
Richard John Sinclair Laws CBE (born 8 August 1935) is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian radio announcer. For 50 years, until 2007, he was the host of an Australian morning radio program combining music with interviews, opinion, live advert ...
. He warned ex-Goon
Harry Secombe
Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'' (1951–1960), playing many characters, m ...
that if he did not lose some of his 129 kilograms, he would die. Secombe took that advice and credited Paltos with saving his life.
Paltos fathered two children and lived in a two-storey home, ''Gwandalan'', in one of
Sydney's most expensive suburbs,
Bellevue Hill.
His gambling issues continued. In 1982 he borrowed $300,000 from the family company of a solicitor, Ross Karp. In an effort to pay mounting debts he became involved in criminal activity.
First conviction
In 1986, Paltos
pleaded guilty
In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...
to charges of conspiring to import 5.5
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s of
hashish into Australia.
Second conviction
In 1990, Paltos was convicted on charges of
conspiring to pervert the course of justice, along with police detective
Roger Rogerson
Roger Caleb Rogerson (born 3 January 1941) is a former detective sergeant of the New South Wales Police Force, and a convicted murderer.
During Rogerson's career, he was one of the most decorated officers in the police force, having received at l ...
, for using bank accounts under false names to hide improperly gotten money.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paltos, Nick
1940s births
2003 deaths
Australian cannabis traffickers
Australian general practitioners
Australian taxi drivers
Greek emigrants to Australia
University of New South Wales Medical School alumni