A con artist said to have posed as a spy has admitted defrauding a man of more than $700,000 during a multi-year campaign of deception in Canberra.
Jeremiah Thomas James Deakin, 31, faced 234 charges over the offending when he first came before the ACT courts last year.
Police alleged then that the avid horse rider's lucrative, fraudulent scheme had included him "falsely representing himself to be an employee of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation".
During their investigation, officers seized three horses and a Mitsubishi Triton ute from Deakin, formerly of Red Hill, under the Confiscation of Criminal Assets Act.
Deakin's lawyer, James Maher, indicated to the ACT Magistrates Court on a number of occasions that the case was likely "going to resolve" without the need for a trial.
But Deakin ended up pleading not guilty and being committed to the ACT Supreme Court for trial on 156 charges of obtaining property by deception and 78 counts of impersonating a public official.
Following a criminal case conference late last month, the case returned to that court on Wednesday morning.
The court heard prosecutors had filed a new indictment containing a single count of obtaining property by deception.
Deakin pleaded guilty to that charge, which said he took $718,904 from the victim between January 2016 and September 2018.
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The precise details of the crime are not yet known, with an agreed statement of facts yet to be tendered to the court.
Mr Maher said while the facts of the offence itself had been settled, there was still a disagreement about the nature of the relationship between Deakin and the victim that needed to be "ironed out".
He told the court this may end up having to be resolved through a disputed facts hearing.
Justice David Mossop listed the matter for directions before a registrar next week, when the next steps in the case are set to be determined.
