A FORMER prominent Mount Gambier businessman has been convicted and placed on an 18-month good behaviour bond for making untrue declarations.
Frank Emmanuel Templeton, 71, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday to be sentenced for three counts of making untrue declarations.
Six charges originally arose following an investigation by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption.
Commissioner Bruce Lander said in a statement on May 29 a summons outlining the charges was served on the defendant on May 3.
He was charged with “six counts of wilfully making a statutory declaration, knowing that declaration to be untrue in a material particular”.
Three of the counts were dropped on October 27.
He was sentenced for the remaining three charges, receiving a conviction and being placed on a $500, 18-month good behaviour bond.
It is alleged the offences occurred in Templeton’s capacity as a public officer in Mount Gambier between August 7, 2013, and April 28, 2014.
Templeton was in the news in 2014 when Templeton Constructions was liquidated, resulting in 19 employees being stood down.
At the time, unsecured creditors were trying to recoup losses of up to $1.5m and employees were owed an estimated $500,000.
The company’s assets were sold collectively to a regional company on September 16, 2014.
