Sponghaul owners Clinton and Emma Spong charged as police probe WA’s biggest alleged cattle rustling heist

Police have charged the owners of a Moora-based rural transport company over offences related to WA’s biggest alleged cattle rustling bust. Clinton Spong, 41, has been charged with three counts of property laundering and engaging in an offence, one of receiving and one of attempting to pervert justice. His wife, Emma Spong, 42, has been charged with being an accessory to an indictable offence. Both are due to appear before Moora Magistrate’s Court next Wednesday. The couple founded Sponghaul in 2009, specialising in grain and livestock transport. Their work includes transporting cattle for pastoralists in the Pilbara. A 49-year-old man from Moora has also been charged with one count of possession of stolen or unlawfully obtained property. The charges stem from investigations by the Rural Crime Squad’s Operation Topography, which was created to combat an established criminal network involved in the theft and sale of cattle in the Mid West, Gascoyne and Pilbara. Police claim there are cattle rustling syndicates made of industry insiders, including musterers, livestock truck drivers, stock agents and feedlot staff. Five other people have so far been charged in relation to the alleged heist — Gascoyne pastoralists Richard Arends and his partner Rachael Third, Nutrien livestock agent Daniel Wood, and station workers Steven McDowall and Joshua Abbott. Police said the investigation was ongoing.