Scott Fleay: Accountant and ex-Peppermint Grove councillor stole $4m from wealthy clients, prosecutors claim

An accountant and former Peppermint Grove councillor stole more than $4 million from a chicken farmer and his sick wife to “subsidise his own family’s lifestyle”, which included two extravagant multi-million dollar western suburbs properties and an $80,000 Range Rover, prosecutors claim. But lawyers for Scott Francis Fleay have argued “you cannot steal what is given to you” — claiming he was given loans, gifts while “moonlighting” for his “fabulously wealthy” client, which he has paid back with interest. And Mr Fleay claims he is now on trial in WA’s District Court because that client — multi-millionaire former poultry farmer Gus Jabado — wants “payback” after “a close personal relationship” between the pair went “badly sour after he felt he had betrayed him”. Opening the State’s case, prosecutor Katrin Robinson today told the jury Mr Jabado and his wife Maria sold their Forrestdale chicken farm Bibblos Poultry — which they owned for three decades — for $28 million in 2006. Ms Robinson said Mr Jabado, who immigrated to Australia from Lebanon in 1969, and his Italian wife were unable to read or write English and could not understand complex legal documents. Ms Robinson said that meant the couple relied “heavily” on Mr Fleay — an employee at Munro’s Accountants and Business Advisors — with their wealth and his advice regarding the company's accounts, investment and tax after he became their accountant in late 2006. She said about the same time, Mrs Jabado became sick so she and her husband, who was busy caring for her, agreed to give Mr Fleay enduring power of attorney to “make it easier for Mr Fleay to take care of their affairs”. The couple placed “significant trust” in Mr Fleay, a Shire of Peppermint Grove councillor for nine years, Ms Robinson said, which included signing documents without checking and singing cheques without query. Ms Robinson said he channelled their money into “his own or his company’s accounts for use for his own benefit” between 2007 and 2010. “Unfortunately it turned out that the Jabados’ trust in Mr Fleay was misplaced,” Ms Robinson said. “The fact that his clients were extremely wealthy and very trusting … provided an opportunity for Mr Fleay to subsidise his own family’s lifestyle.” Mr Fleay set up a superannuation fund for the couple, Ms Robinson said, which enabled him to transfer the couple’s cash into the fund and then withdraw it again for his own use. “The State says that was a way to muddy the waters, because the more money is moved around, the more difficult it is to keep track of it,” she said. Just two weeks after Mr Fleay took control of the couple’s affairs, he allegedly stole $2.3 million from their super fund which he used to help buy a $3.15 million property on Forrest Street in Peppermint Grove. It was later sold for $3 million. Ms Robinson said at the end of the 2007-2008 financial year, the couple wanted to donate tens of thousands of dollars to charities, including Telethon, Silver Chain and the Leukaemia Foundation. Instead, Ms Robinson said, four cheques for $20,000 each went into accounts controlled by Mr Fleay, including into a joint account held by him and his wife and an American Express account. Prosecutors say in August 2008, Mr Fleay withdrew $2 million from Mrs Jabado’s account and used it to purchase three bank cheques, which were then used to buy a $2.5 million home on Broome Street in Cottesloe. It is also alleged Mr Fleay indicated money was being transferred from the couple’s super account to the Australian Taxation Office to pay tax liabilities but was used to satisfy his own tax requirements. Ms Robinson said over three days in October 2008, Mr Fleay transferred $90,000 from the couple’s super fund account and transferred it into his own company account. “I can’t tell you what he did with it,” she said. “However, what is interesting, is that about one month later, Mr Fleay purchased a Range Rover for nearly $80,000.” Ms Robinson said Mr Jabado became suspicious after his wife died in September 2010 and Mr Fleay paid $1 million into her account. He engaged his previous accountant, and then an independent accountant, to investigate before police were alerted. Defence lawyer Simon Freitag said while Mr Fleay may have “got into a relationship with the Jabado’s that was well above what an accountant would normally do with his clients” that was “not normal” or “inappropriate”, he was not a thief. Mr Freitag said Mr Fleay was helping Mrs Jabado access her money “effectively behind her husband’s back” so she could give it to her family, which her husband would not have allowed. And he said he was “moonlighting” for the Jabados — which he admitted breached his obligation to his employer. “Despite these ethical lapses ... the defence is a clear and simple one,” he said. “You can’t steal what has been given to you.” Mr Freitag said Mr Jabado loaned Mr Fleay sums of money to finance his homes. He said some of the transfers were reimbursements for work he had done for him, while others were so Mrs Jabado could access her money. “The defence position is Mr Gus Jabado was controlling and overbearing and put his wife in a very subservient role in the relationship where he controlled the finances,” he said. Mr Freitag said Mr Jabado “didn’t like her family”, to the point that they did not find out that she had died for a year. And he said Mr Jabado and his wife were “fabulously wealthy, beyond the sort of wealth any of us could imagine in our lifetime” and “rewarded those who gave him good services”. Mr Freitag said “you may be asking if he ultimately got everything back … why are we here?” “And the defence says the answer will be found in the anger and controlling behaviour of Mr Jabado. “The defence position is that Mr Jabado has quite the temper, that after he found out about the Maria money in particular, he got very angry with Scott Fleay. “He regularly reminded the Fleays that he had a shotgun. “He would regularly stand over him and make him write documents for him ... he confiscated phones, keys, deadlocked his front door and took a car from Mr Fleay that he has to this day.” Mr Freitag said Mr Jabado also found out about his wife’s “secret will” that cut him out of her money and named her family as beneficiaries,which he believed Mr Fleay knew about. And when Mr Fleay paid back some money, he mistakenly put it into his wife’s account which angered him. “The defence says to you that you might draw a conclusion that crossing Mr Jabado and costing him money are unforgivable sins and this process is payback for that,” he said. “His motivation for complaining to police is not to fix up stealing that has happened to him, that’s something he’s made up. “That what’s happened is loans, gifts, a close personal relationship between him and Mr Fleay went badly sour after he felt he had betrayed him.” The trial continues.

Scott Fleay: Accountant and ex-Peppermint Grove councillor stole $4m from wealthy clients, prosecutors claim

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