After
pleading guilty to breaches of the Crimes Act, Neill Allan Williams was sentenced
to an extra seventeen months in prison for frauds perpetrated against investors
in the Five Star group.
Already jailed for
three years and seven months following Securities Act convictions, a concurrent
sentence of five years was handed down by the High Court after Williams pleaded
guilty to two counts of theft by a person in a special relationship. This followed investigations into fraudulent
lending by Five Star Consumer Finance.
Five Star investors have recovered about forty cents in the dollar after
the company went into receivership.
The court was told
Williams was not a director of Five Star but was deeply involved in the
company’s administration. Between 2003
and 2007, Five Star made loans totalling $29.2 million to related parties in
breach of the trust deed which governed use of funds raised from outside
investors. False documentation concealed
the true beneficiaries of the loans and was used to hoodwink the company
auditors and solicitors. A further $14.2
million was misappropriated in 2007 as Five Star management sought to cover up
the earlier fraud.
In April 2013,
Williams was jailed for breaches of the Securities Act and the Financial
Reporting Act. He strongly contested a parallel
Crimes Act prosecution, changing his plea to guilty only after four days of
evidence had been heard.
In passing sentence,
Justice Gilbert said a five and half year jail term was the correct starting
point for these breaches of the Crimes Act but a six month discount was
appropriate given Williams’ age and poor health. Aged 79, he was described as being bankrupt
and in remission from cancer.
R.
v. Williams – High Court (22.08.13)
13.024