A real estate agent has been banned from practice for eight years, given a suspended jail sentence and fined more than $100,000 for fraudulently converting trust account money.
David Michael Johnson was on Friday given the eight-year ban on practising as an agent after earlier this month being placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond and receiving a suspended jail sentence of 14 months for each of eight charges of fraudulently converting.
He was also ordered to pay $118,180 - $2000 for each of the eight convictions, $2180 in costs and $100,000 compensation to the Property Services Compensation Fund.
NSW Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe said on Monday Fair Trading would continue cracking down on trust account fraud in the real estate industry.
"These are indictable offences and real estate agents can face prison terms of up to 10 years for meddling with trust accounts," he said.
"Millions of home-owner and landlord dollars go through trust accounts every year.
"Consumers have the right to expect that all real estate agents will comply with the provisions of the Property, Stock and Business Agents Act, and trust money will be kept safe by those agents."
Parramatta Local Court earlier this month heard that on August 31, 2011 Johnson telephoned Fair Trading and reported a trust deficiency of about $350,000 for Johnson Prestige Realty Pty Ltd.
He offered to hand himself in and put the company into voluntary administration.
Two days later Fair Trading Investigators attended the offices of L J Hooker Pymble.
Johnson admitted misappropriating $480,000 from the sale deposits of a property in Killara.
To cover up the shortfall he then fraudulently misappropriated a further $500,000 from the sale deposit on a property at Wahroonga, the department said in a statement.
Johnson told investigators he misappropriated the funds to pay for illegal drugs for his wife to alleviate pain from failed surgery.
Mr Stowe described the situation as tragic but said it did not justify Johnson's actions.
via:http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/news/dodgy-estate-agent-fined-suspended-004232219--spt.html
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