Business rival is held over Scot's 'execution'

A RIVAL businessman has been charged with organising the execution-style murder of Scottish-born millionaire Michael Loch McGurk in Australia.

Mr McGurk, 45, was shot dead with a single bullet to the back of the head as he got out of his Mercedes-Benz outside his home in the affluent northern Sydney suburb of Cremorne on 3 September 2009, in front of his ten-year-old son.

Yesterday, detectives arrested wealthy property developer Ron Medich.

Police allege Medich was the mastermind behind the plot to kill McGurk and paid A$250,000 to have it done.

Medich, 62, who was refused bail when he later appeared in court, had been caught up in an anti-corruption investigation into claims made by McGurk before his killing.

He is charged with soliciting to murder and being an accessory after the the fact of murder. The motive, police said, was business deals gone wrong. Five people have now been arrested in connection with the killing.

Detective Superintendent Peter Cotter, commander of the Homicide Squad, alleged Medich organised the murder.

"We are alleging he is the person who commissioned it. He orchestrated it and wanted it done.

"We would say there's a number of business ventures between the businessman and Michael McGurk. Those turned sour. It was pure economics that was the real motive."

McGurk, who emigrated from Scotland in 1993 under the name Michael Rushford, was known as a loan shark or "lender of last resort".