Chaser duo held over motorcade stunt
Arjun Ramachandran
September 6, 2007 - 12:25PM
Two of The Chaser team have been detained after conducting a fake motorcade through the city this morning.
Police have detained Chas Licciardello and Chaser executive producer Julian Morrow at the InterContinental hotel.
Lawyers for the ABC are in discussions with police.
Chaser team member Chris Taylor said the motorcade comprised "three cars, a couple of motorbikes, and a lot of crew".
"It was a motorcade trying to get into the exclusion zone," he said.
Chaser crew members were initially detained in their cars while "police on the ground'' waited for special units to arrive, he said.
US President George Bush's motorcade swept through the city to Darling Harbour this morning.
The NSW Minister for Transport, John Watkins, warned Sydneysiders that most of the disruptions due to motorcades were yet to come.
"Between 3pm and 7.30pm today, there will be 92 motorcade movements around the city," he said.
Between 4pm and 7.30pm there would be motorcades from the airport for delegations from Canada, Vietnam and the director-general of APEC.
The Chaser convoy had been dressed up to look like an official Canadian motorcade, with Canadian flags attached to the cars and "Canada'' signs visible in the front windscreen.
"No particular reason we chose Canada," said Taylor. "We just thought they'd be a country who the cops wouldn't scrutinise too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade - as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him."
The motorcade got into the red zone, past two sets of gates.
It was pulled over on the corner of Bridge and Macquarie streets.
Taylor said the Chaser duo had been taken to Surry Hills police station.
Police superintendent Ken McKay confirmed the pair had been arrested for breaching the restricted zone.
The arrests had been made using new powers available under the APEC Act, he said.
Police Media are preparing a statement on the incident.
- with David Braithwaite and Andrew Meares