A COMPANY supposedly supplying materials to Bathurst Regional Council had taken more than $330,000 from council for only a minuscule amount of goods, the Independent Commission Against Corruption heard yesterday.
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Robin Newman, a former sales representative for Universal Telemarketing Services Pty Ltd – and who is now serving a jail sentence for fraud – said the invoices to Bathurst Regional Council had been issued by a company called PAE Pty Ltd.
He said that he and a principal of the company, Paul Wright, had taken $336,546.60 from council and, apart from the cost of “minor bits and pieces that had been supplied”, it was all profit.
Geoffrey Leonard Hadley, a senior storeman with Bathurst Regional Council, had conspired to bring the fraud about and he had taken 50 per cent of the profit while Newman and Mr Wright had each taken 25 per cent, Newman said.
Newman said that another company that had been established, Pinnacle Trading Pty Ltd that had been established in April 2005, had also been involved in issuing bogus invoices to Bathurst Regional Council.
Hadley had taken 50 per cent of the profit and Newman, together with Michael Stokes, Newman’s boss at Universal Telemarketing Services, had also taken 25 per cent each.
The fraud, which had continued from January 2005 to January 2009, had amounted to $178,311.19. Newman said he had been involved in another fraudulent operation with Yass Valley Council and, on this occasion, had dealt with an officer of the council, Kerry Lloyd Smith.
Mr Stokes denied in evidence yesterday afternoon that he had been corruptly involved with Newman in fraudulently taking money from Bathurst Regional Council and Yass Valley Council.
The inquiry continues.
