{"id":712347,"date":"2026-06-03T10:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712347\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:16:15","slug":"police-allege-corporate-boss-refused-blood-alcohol-tests-after-sydney-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712347\/","title":{"rendered":"Police allege corporate boss refused blood alcohol tests after Sydney car crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

A corporate titan is alleged to have crashed his BMW into five cars in Sydney’s east, before refusing two alcohol-detecting breath tests.<\/p>\n

NSW Police allege private equity baron Joel Thickins of TPG Capital hit a Mazda then ploughed into four parked cars on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The company’s website describes Joel Thickins as a partner and the co-head of Asia at TPG and co-managing partner for TPG Capital Asia. (Supplied: TPG)<\/p>\n

They allege he refused a breath test on the debris-strewn roadside and then a further breath analysis after he was arrested and taken to Paddington Police Station that evening.<\/p>\n

The 48-year-old is the co-head of TPG Asia, which manages more than $US23 billion ($32 billion) in assets. He has been the chair of veterinary company Greencross and funeral behemoth InvoCare.<\/p>\n

‘Multiple bangs’ as cars collide<\/p>\n

“An almighty crash,” is how Adam Corcoran described it.<\/p>\n

The resident of York Road in Queens Park, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, heard the commotion on Monday evening, caused by the driver of a BMW i5 \u2014 a car that retails for about $170,000.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Police were called to York Road in Queens Park after reports of the crash. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Multiple bangs, culminating in the big one that stopped the car from moving,” he recalled.<\/p>\n

“Two cars further up had been sideswiped, the second of the two had been hit hard, which has ended up smashing into the rear end of a parked car.”<\/p>\n

All up, three cars were towed, he said, with others having less damage.<\/p>\n

“I heard a passer-by in the traffic ask the driver if he was OK. ‘Yeah I’m OK,'” Mr Corcoran said he heard.<\/p>\n

Shortly afterwards, police arrived.<\/p>\n

\"Crumpled<\/p>\n

The black BMW was extensively damaged in the crash. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“We had upwards of half a dozen police officers taking statements. One was verbally instructing the driver not to move too far. [He] seemed to be in OK condition, complying with the police officers.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, the NSW Police Force said about 7:20pm on Monday, June 1, officers attached to the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command went to York Road, Queens Park, after reports of a crash.<\/p>\n

“Police attended and found a BMW and Mazda had collided before the BMW allegedly crashed into four parked cars.<\/p>\n

“The driver of the BMW \u2014 a 48-year-old man \u2014 allegedly refused a roadside breath test.<\/p>\n

“He was arrested and taken to Paddington Police Station for a breath analysis which he allegedly refused.”<\/p>\n

NSW Police said he would appear before Waverley Local Court on June 30.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Police allege the driver of the BMW refused a roadside breath test. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

When contacted by ABC News, Mr Thickins did not elaborate on the alleged incident.<\/p>\n

“No, I’m not commenting,” he said.<\/p>\n

Asked specifically about the allegation by police that he refused two breath tests to detect the presence of alcohol, he repeated that phrase.<\/p>\n

Private equity buys and sells in the billions<\/p>\n

Mr Thickins is a major player in the lucrative field of private equity, which sees him managing deals at the top of corporate Australia.<\/p>\n

He took on the role of country head for TPG in Australia in 2016, joining from another firm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TPG has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

TPG Capital owns companies including Funlab, which is behind brands including Strike bowling centres, Holey Moley mini-golf outlets and Archie Brothers arcade centres.<\/p>\n

It also owns pet care behemoth Greencross, behind retailer Petbarn and the Greencross Vet chain, and has previously considered a public offer that would value the chain <\/a>at $4 billion.<\/p>\n

TPG Capital is a privately-held company and has no link to the telecommunications company of the similar name, although a stuff-up by the stock market operator ASX last year confused the two<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The private equity group was engaged in a takeover of a tech company but the ASX got it wrong, linking TPG Telecom to the deal and sparking a stock sell-off, wiping $400 million from the telco’s market value, even though it had nothing to do with the transaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A corporate titan is alleged to have crashed his BMW into five cars in Sydney’s east, before refusing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,346226,42840,346223,346228,346227,44,4277,346225,346224],"class_list":["post-712347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bmw-crash","tag-car-crash","tag-joel-thickins","tag-joel-thickins-arrested","tag-joel-thickins-crash","tag-news","tag-nsw-police","tag-tpg-asia","tag-tpg-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}