Now imagine you're sitting in a cafe, waiting for your brekky, and you pick up the local free paper to while away the time. Scan a few ads. Browse a few articles. Happens all the time. But who runs these papers? Do they have ulterior motives?

Well the editors of this one certainly appear to have a heap of them...

Voice Newspaper We are the ONLY paper to go BOTH sides of the River. — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

That's the Swan River, in W.A. Only three issues of Voice have appeared, in March and April. In the suburbs around Fremantle they've had a

Mamouth Distribution 35,000 — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

That is a pretty mamouth effort for a small start up paper - which is not to be confused, by the way, with the well-established free paper The Perth Voice published just up-river.

No, the aim of Voice in Fremantle, said the editor of its first edition...

...is to adopt a completely new, different and refreshing approach to local news telling and business promotion. Darrly Samson Editor — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

That's certainly a new and different name. O, sorry, it's another mamouth mistake. Over here it says...

CEO + Editor: Darryl Samson — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

But the newness and differentness of Voice's approach to news goes well beyond dreadful writing and lousy subbing.

Take the lead story in its first edition, for example...

The Continuing Saga of Delay and Obstruction, with the Best Laid Plans of the Committed Developers — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

Yes, that's just the headline. It's all about the proposed redevelopment of The Royal George Hotel in East Fremantle

... local developers Terry Magee and Andrew Cobb ...now say they are further bogged down with the Council, on matters of car parking. — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

This turgid yarn about heroic developers and an obstructive council goes on for more than a thousand words. Who wrote it? We're not told. But here's a coincidence.

Look up developer Terry William Magee in ASIC's register of Personal Names and you'll find he's a director of a number of companies. For some of them, like

AustAsian Finance Pty Ltd

his address is given as

Unit 10, 79 Thompson Rd North Fremantle — ASIC Register of Personal Names

Then, if you look up 'Voice Newspapers' in the W.A. register of Business Names, you find that editor and CEO Darryl Samson's address is given as

10/79 Thompson Rd North Fremantle — W.A. Register of Business Names

Isn't that interesting? We don't know if Mr Magee approved of this use of his address. We've asked him, but he hasn't responded. But here's another interesting thing about Mr Samson.

The Voice's rival free paper, the Fremantle Herald, had a front page story a couple of weeks ago about Voice Newspapers not paying its bills.

One victim was POS Displays of Sydney, which was owed $2000 for display stands ordered by Voice's sales manager, Tim Lee. POS's Kylie Moulding, reported The Herald...

...said she had been ping-ponged between Mr Lee's "boss" Don Storen and company bookkeeper Stephen Olifent and said she had been hung up on several times. — Fremantle Herald,, 14th May, 2011

Now in the first edition of Voice,

Don Storen

is listed as one of two

Contributors — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

The "boss" should surely have been

CEO + Editor: Darryl Samson

Intrigued, the Fremantle Herald's Steve Grant discovered that Darryl Samson had the same phone number as Don Storen

At first "Mr Samson" told us he and Mr Storen shared the phone, before in a subsequent call Mr Storen acknowledged they were one-and-the-same person. — Fremantle Herald, 14th May, 2011

How odd! So why would Don Storen want to call himself Darryl Samson, or vice-versa? Well, maybe because of this...

57 year old Don Storen is accused of having underage sex with four boys at the island resort he manages on Lombok. — ABC News, 17th October, 2006

That was back in 2006. Former Adelaide businessman Don Storen was found guilty and served 4 years in an Indonesian prison.

So what have we got so far?

A convicted pedophile uses a pseudonym to start up a free newspaper which then spruiks the business interests of a man whose office he appears to share.

But it gets even more interesting.

Don Storen's co-contributor in that first edition was

Angela Olifent

who also handled the paper's

Sales & Marketing — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

And on page 22 Ms Olifent contributed this riveting piece...

Onslow "A new source of vital energy" Angela Olifent — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

The Wheatstone natural gas project off the Pilbara coast, wrote Angela, means that...

Onslow is a small fishing village with an enormous future ...with development approvals being issued for short stay apartments and a large two storey shopping centre ... — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

And at the bottom of the page, we see Angela's Sales and Marketing skills on display...

Onslow Investment Opportunity 5 Sophisiticated Investors req. at $400 000 for proposed shopping centre ... 54% return to investors Contact Angela Olifent — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

54%! Sounds too good to be true! And if you need help to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity, you can turn to

AustAsian Finance Financial Solutions For Critical Solutions

Just call

Angela Olifent — Voice, Volume 1, No 1, March, 2011

AustAsian Finance? Rings a bell doesn't it?

Oh yes...that's the company whose director is

Terry William Magee

who's trying to develop the Royal George Hotel - see page 3 of Voice. And whose address is

Unit 10, 79 Thomson Road, North Fremantle — ASIC Record for AustAsian Finance Pty Ltd

...which is also given by Mr Samson aka Storen, editor of Voice. And what do you know, AustAsian's second director is

Angela Sarah Olifent — ASIC Record for AustAsian Finance Pty Ltd

Sales and Marketing Manager of Voice.

So Angela Olifent - and her husband Stephen, who is the Voice's bookkeeper - seem to be right in the middle of this curious web of interests.

As the Fremantle Herald has pointed out, the Olifents and Terry Magee have figured before in the rich history of property deals in the West.

Consultant Terry Magee today gave evidence at the Finance Brokers Inquiry about his role in the collapse of the Dunsborough resort hotel motel project. 41private investors lost about $1 million — ABC News, 3rd September, 2001

Just one of the deals investigated by the Finance Broking Royal Commission back in 2001. In his final report, Commissioner Ian Temby concluded that Terry Magee had

...behaved improperly... — Final Report, Royal Commission into the Finance Broking Industry, December, 2001

...though a District Court judge later found he had no criminal case to answer.

The bloke who valued Terry Magee's properties back then was Stephen Olifent. Mr Temby concluded that

his conduct in preparing the valuations was improper. — Final Report, Royal Commission into the Finance Broking Industry, December, 2001

But here's some good news: Stephen's wife Angela was promoted for Voice's second edition:

Editor - Angela Olifent

because

Darryl has had to return to his Newspaper obligations in Indonesia ... — Voice, Volume 1, No 2, April, 2011

Terry Magee denied any involvement in Voice Newspapers. But he did agree on the phone that as well as being a director of AustAsian Finance Angela Olifent is

... an editor of the paper too. So what? ... I can't control what directors do. I'm a director of 15 or 20 different companies ...I've had no involvement with Don Storen. — Terry Magee, Director, AustAsian Finance, 26th May, 2011

We've asked Angela Olifent, and Don Storen, about the multiple conflicts of interest involved in this smelly little enterprise, and received no response.

Since its third edition in April, Voice seems to have fallen silent. And a good thing too. Here's my entirely unqualified advice. Steer well clear of those Onslow Investment Opportunities. 54% indeed!