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Stock agent sentenced for $1.3m fraud

Hamish McNeilly

A former livestock agent deceived Rural Livestock Ltd of over a million dollars.

John Francis Williams, of Balclutha in South Otago, appeared before Justice David Gendall in the High Court in Dunedin yesterday morning.

The 40-year-old was sentenced on representative charges of false accounting, obtaining by deception, and a charge of causing loss by deception.

The Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into the offending after it received a complaint by Rural Livestock, which recorded a direct loss of $1.34 million. Gendall said Williams’ victims were caught in ‘‘the web of your unfortunate transactions’’.

Williams was employed as a livestock agent with Rural Livestock from June 2008 to May 2016.

The company is the largest privately-owned livestock and station company in the South Island, with its head office in Christchurch.

It provides livestock agency services, including stock sale transactions, auctioneering and valuation services, and clearing sales. It also introduces third parties to each other in respect of grazing.

According to the summary of facts, Williams was an agent for a number of farmers, mainly in the lower South Island, for whom he facilitated stock transactions.

The farmers relied on Williams to file the correct paperwork with the company over their transactions.

But between mid-2014 and mid2016, those stock transactions were inconsistent with the company’s accounting records, leading to Williams being stood down on May 23, 2016, and resigning that August.

Williams defrauded his employer, as well as his clients by submitting false sale notes related to livestock sales and leasing agreements.

At times he presented himself as the vendor of animals he didn’t own, sold stock which did not exist, or created a fictitious entity.

This caused Rural Livestock to incorrectly invoice or credit farmers who knew nothing of the transactions or had relied on Williams’ handshake agreement.

Examples of his offending included Williams submitting credit notes over the sale of cattle, and him being issued with an invoice from his company. However, in that case there were no purchases – leaving the company with debt of $450,800.

Williams used false sale notes or gaps in the livestock transport, identification, tracing and management systems to disguise his offending. The company suffered $1.3 million in losses as a direct result of Williams’ offending and through compensating affected farmers.

Judge Gendall sentenced Williams to 12 months’ home detention, and ordered him to pay reparations of $250,000 to Rural Livestock Ltd in five working days, and a further $300,000, over a period of three years.

The company and his clients had placed great trust in Williams and ‘‘with your actions you have brought great shame on yourself’’, the judge said.

SFO director Julie Read said: ‘‘Williams took advantage of the livestock industry’s traditional relationship-based trading practises for his own gain.

‘‘By exploiting vulnerabilities in the system, he abused the trust placed in him by his employer and the farmers he worked with.’’

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en-nz

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281535114274187

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