Footy champ sent to jail

FORMER Clarence superstar Danny Noonan has been jailed for 6½ years after pleading guilty to stealing $2.5 million from clients of his financial planning business.

The shining light of Clarence’s golden era of the 1990s, Noonan, 48, yesterday fronted the Supreme Court in Hobart to admit to 107 charges of financial misappropriation and theft committed over nine years from 2006.

The court heard Noonan, who played AFL for both Carl- ton and Brisbane before moving to Tasmania to win three flags with Clarence, hoodwinked 14 clients out of a total of $2,495,000.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Linda Mason told Justice Stephen Estcourt that the defendant had used his profile to attract clients to Noonan Financial Services, while others had been referred by friends.

As a licensed agent of finan- cial services giant AMP, Noonan provided advice on risk, superannuation and investments from his Lindisfarne-based business.

Ms Mason said in most instances Noonan had misappropriated funds transferred into his own account meant for investments, but he had also forged signatures on cheques.

Noonan told police he had spent much of the money servicing a gambling addiction, and genuinely believed he could win it back.

Noonan’s lawyer, Fabian Dixon, told the court the case represented a dramatic fall from grace for the one-time icon of Tasmanian sport, but said greed had never been a motivating factor.

Mr Dixon said family issues, a chronic health concern, and work pressures had built up to a point where the dual William Leitch medallist sought an “escape to gambling”.

Justice Estcourt said he took into account Noonan’s health issues and long-term gambling addiction, but described his offending as prolonged, and involving a breach of trust with multiple victims.

He ordered Noonan to serve at least half the sentence before being eligible for parole.

The court heard that AMP is negotiating with all victims for full compensation payouts.