A decades-long landscape architect is now bankrupt after suffering a "significant fall from grace" following his desperate and "Robin Hood" act to illegally obtain money so he could pay his "starving" employees.
Bruce Richard Young, 63, faced sentencing in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday after he was found guilty of using a false document to dishonestly obtain a gain.
Young had been the director of Landscape Direct for about two decades before the company became insolvent, prompting him to put the company into voluntary administration in 2018 and to start a new company.
At the time, Landscape Direct had a number of contracts with the ACT government, including maintaining parkland areas and barbecues.
The Victorian-born architect had novation documents to transfer the work from the old company to the new.
His offending involved him forging two signatures of government workers in July 2018 to change the order of priorities for creditors in the administration process.
Namely, that $12,500 was released to pay his employees' outstanding wages.
Young then perpetrated his version of events for about six weeks.
The court heard that before the offending, the business went from a turnover of $10m-$13m to about $1m in 2013-17 because of alleged negligence and fraud by past employees.
Defence lawyer Phillip English said his client's offending occurred "in a period of extreme stress" because he needed to pay staff and creditors.
Mr English cited the fact finding of the case by magistrate James Lawton, who said it looked like a Robin Hood-type scenario.
"He [Young] did have noble intentions," Mr English said.
"Albeit there was a significant amount of pressure being placed on Mr Young, which was absent in Robin Hood's motivations.
"Mr Young is bankrupt and he's very remorseful and upset for all of this, which has been quite catastrophic."
He asked for a non-conviction with a good behaviour order based on numerous reasons, including extenuating circumstances, the financial gain not being significant, and his depression and anxiety.
"Mr Young has suffered a significant fall from grace already with devastating financial and reputational impacts," Mr English said.
Prosecutor Nathan Deakes argued for a conviction and fine, saying a good behaviour order "would be of little utility to an offender like Mr Young" given his personal features and his Sydney residence.
He argued against the emotional and financial strain as being extenuating circumstances, saying they were not directly related to the offending.
He said a non-conviction would be manifestly inadequate and that a salient feature was the "level of dishonesty stemming from the position of trust Mr Young occupies".
The prosecutor conceded that the offending was not for personal gain, but that it was to dishonestly circumvent the voluntary administration's order of priority.
He said it was a white-collar crime with a Robin Hood aspect and that the level of sophistication was low.
"It could even be said to be a split-second decision," Mr Deakes said.
The magistrate, Mr Lawton, said he accepted Young was under significant pressure and disagreed with Mr Deakes' argument that it did not form extenuating circumstances.
"His company was faltering, his employees were starving because they were unable to be employed and the only funds that were available had been effectively sequestered under the operation of the voluntary administration," Mr Lawton said.
He said that while the offending was committed "under extreme personal stress", he was "not necessarily satisfied" that Young's mental health issues was such that it had a direct connection with the offending.
"Mr Young comes before the court as a person of otherwise good character," Mr Lawton said.
"The financial difficulties the company found itself in cannot be attributed to anything done by Mr Young other than perhaps losing oversight in his role as the director."
Mr Lawton said while the matter was not trivial, there was "little need" to deter Young, who he believed would not reoffend.
"It was a desperate act by the director of a failing company," he said.
Mr Lawton did not record a conviction and placed Young on a two-year good behaviour order.
