Wife of accused thieving accountant Scott Fleay tells of threats and violence by millionaire Gus Jabado

The wife of a Peppermint Grove accountant accused of stealing millions of dollars from a wealthy chicken farmer has told how she was left “frightened” after a solo visit to the alleged victim’s home where he took away her mobile phone and keys and forced her to write down the names and addresses of her family members. Simone Fleay, a teacher at elite private girls’ school Presbyterian Ladies’ College, took the stand today in defence of her husband Scott Francis Fleay, who is on trial accused of fleecing more than $4 million from multi-millionaire Gus Jabado and his late wife Maria. The jury has been told that the couple sold their Forrestdale poultry farm in 2006, before giving Mr Fleay enduring power of attorney over their affairs because they struggled to write and read English or understand complex legal documents. Prosecutors allege that between 2007 and 2010, Mr Fleay, a former Peppermint Grove councillor, siphoned sums of the couple’s money into accounts he controlled and used it to “subsidise his own family’s lifestyle”. That lifestyle included two multi-millionaire properties in Peppermint Grove and Cottesloe and an $80,000 Range Rover, bought with money allegedly stolen from a superannuation account and Mrs Jabado’s bank account. But Mr Fleay says the monies were gifts, payments for accounting services or loans offered by Mr Jabado which Mr Fleay felt he could not refuse, and were taken with the full knowledge and agreement of the chicken millionaire. Giving evidence today, Mrs Fleay told of Christmas-time visits to the Jabado’s farm, with happy snaps of Mr and Mrs Jabado with their two baby daughters shown to the court. Mrs Fleay said Mr Jabado, who she said had a “very big, very loud” personality, would regularly call her husband, including on weekends, and he would have to go to his client’s house. She said the close, friendly relationship between Mr Jabado and the Fleay family turned “frightening” on Boxing Day 2010, with the court told the farmer called Mr Fleay at 5am and demanded he come to his house immediately. Mr Jabado’s anger, the defence claims, boiled over after he found out Mr Fleay was secretly helping Mrs Jabado access her money so she could give it to her family and believed that he knew about a “secret will” that cut him out of her estate. Mr Fleay’s lawyers also say Mr Jabado became enraged after Mr Fleay accidentally repaid $1 million into Mrs Jabado’s account after her death in 2010, because it was an account he did not control. Mrs Fleay said after the Boxing Day meeting, Mr Jabado began arriving at the home unannounced to “ask us both to come outside to sit with him and have discussions”, as well as visiting at “all hours” to ask Scott to come with him to his house. “He became very volatile, intimidating, difficult to predict how he was going to behave,” Mrs Fleay said. Mrs Fleay said she saw her husband place a small piece of paper that had a list of columns, figures and signatures into his briefcase. Mr Fleay says he asked Mrs Jabado to sign her name each time he withdrew money on her behalf, but when he tried to show it to Mr Jabado, he “ate it”. Speaking of their impromptu meetings, Mrs Fleay said Mr Jabado would “rant and rave” and said “that if Scott had put money into the right account then he would be in clover”. Mr Jabado also allegedly told the couple “to make ourselves available anytime he needed us and that we will comply” and also “crawled across the floor, embraced Scott and then took him by the throat with two hands”. Mrs Fleay broke down when she spoke about once going to Mr Jabado’s home alone after his repeated visits, which left her “frightened”. “I didn’t want my children to be exposed to his volatile and frightening behaviour, so I felt that I had no choice but to go there,” she said. “I was taken inside, my mobile phone was removed, he took it from me. We sat at the kitchen table, he took my keys off me and took them to a different room. “He asked me to write down the names of my family members and addresses. He didn’t say why. “I wasn’t allowed to leave until I did that.” Mrs Fleay said Mr Jabado also demanded to know about a property that had been left to her family by her late grandmother and details of their other properties. She said she did not apply for a restraining order or report Mr Jabado to police because she did not think it would “assist” with what was happening and would “inflame” Mr Jabado further. The Fleays bought a property with the Jabados and Mrs Fleay said she “didn’t really want any investment in any joint property” because “I just felt Mr Jabado had a fair bit of control over Scott already and it was just another tie”. Under cross-examination, Mrs Fleay said her husband did not tell her he was taking money from Mr Jabado. Speaking about the purchase of one of their properties, she said she was sick, looking after a toddler and pregnant at the time, and asked her husband to take care of the “financial side of things”. In his evidence, Mr Fleay described how envelopes would arrive at his various workplaces in the years that followed, containing details of the theft allegations from Mr Jabado. “A brown envelope would turn up, I would be asked to explain … and then I would be asked to leave,” Mr Fleay said. Mrs Fleay said she did not see it, but was told a similar envelope was sent to PLC. The trial continues.