WATTLE Range Council had “no knowledge” a former staff member was facing a jail term for deceiving his neighbour out of $158,000, its chief executive Ben Gower says.
Mark Lynton Thredgold, who until recently served as council’s planning officer, has been jailed for two years for what the sentencing judge described as a “ruthless” offence.
Thredgold appeared in the Adelaide District Court last week for sentencing on a charge of aggravated deception.
In 2010, Thredgold pled guilty to 11 counts of deception for offences committed in 2003 and 2004 after making false claims for refunds of GST payments to the Australian Taxation Office.
The court heard sentencing was postponed on several occasions to provide Thredgold with opportunities to pay back the funds.
In February 2011, Thredgold told his 60-year-old neighbour and his wife he was facing jail for the crimes.
The pair agreed to lend Thredgold $156,000 to pay the Australian Taxation Office after he falsely told them his parents would guarantee the repayment of the money.
Shortly after, Thredgold and his partner presented the victim with a loan agreement with signatures in the names of his parents which he had forged.
The defendant presented another document which purported to be a caveat granted by his parents over their real estate of the victim and his wife, which was also fraudulent.
In April 2011, Thredgold was sentenced to two and a half years for the taxation crime, which was suspended after he had served four months.
Judge Wayne Chivell said the initial sentence was based on “some contrition” on Thredgold’s part by paying back the funds and the sentencing judge considered the “personal sacrifice” he had made in raising the money.
In a scathing response, Judge Chivell said the conclusions were not true and Thredgold had “deliberately mislead and deceived the court” and “therefore received a more lenient sentence than you deserved.”
“Unknown to his Honour, you were not contrite, nor had you made a personal sacrifice,” Judge Chivell said.
“You had effectively stolen the money from the victim.”
The court heard beyond some late interest repayments, Thredgold had not repaid the money to the victim and were required to sell their investment property to repay the bank.
“The matter was not reported until 2016 because you led the victim into thinking you would repay him,” Judge Chivell said.
“He did not discover your fraudulent conduct until he realised you were stringing him along and after he consulted his solicitor when the bank was threatening to foreclose on the mortgage.
“They had relied on the rental income they had been receiving for that rental property and had hoped to leave the property to their daughter.
“Now they have and still have, no income apart from the pension.”
The victim eventually reported the matter to police in 2016 and when Thredgold was confronted, he “tried to lie” and claimed he had never seen the documents before.
Judge Chivell agreed with a court psychologist who found Thredgold had no psychological or psychiatric condition which could be related to the offending.
“Your offending was deliberate, calculated, planned and ruthless,” he said.
“All you cared about was staying out of jail.”
Judge Chivell sentenced Thredgold to five years, which was reduced to three and a half years due to the defendants early guilty plea.
He further fixed a non-parole period of two years and two months.
Thredgold started as a planning officer at council in late 2017 and resigned from the position in August this year.
Mr Gower said Thredgold had not disclosed his 2011 conviction for the taxation crimes or the aggravated deception charges at any stage through the recruitment process or his employment term.
He said council staff were made aware of the conviction early this week.
“We do reference checking with all of our applicants and it did not come up through that process,” he said.
“We had no idea.”
Mr Gower said the offending or Thredgold’s resignation was not related to any council activities.
“The timing of his resignation aligned with what we understand was happening up in Adelaide,” he said.
“The sentencing could have been a contributing factor but we were completely oblivious given what we now know.”
