Hammer kill guilt

But adviser denies it was murder

A BRISBANE financial planner who beat his best client to death with a hammer to stop him blabbing about fraudulent conduct bought two large bins from Bunnings to hide the body, a court has been told.

Indooroopilly businessman Trung The Ma, 35, has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Huegio Bonham at Tallai on the Gold Coast in 2014 on the basis he had an “abnormality of the mind” at the time of the killing.

He also confessed to disposing of the body but pleaded not guilty to the 63year-old’s murder at the start of his Brisbane Supreme Court trial yesterday.

The prosecution alleged Ma killed Mr Bonham with a hammer at the man’s Gold Coast Hinterland property on February 3, 2014 after he threatened to tell people the financial adviser had defrauded him of more than $700,000.

The fraud was revealed when Mr Bonham tried to purchase a property to build a wellness “commune” on.

Ma took the body and hid it inside large plastic containers he bought from Bunnings in Oxley before dumping it in a National Storage shed at Indooroopilly, the court was told.

Mr Bonham’s decomposing body was found by police in the storage shed about two weeks later.

Ma also disposed of the hammer he used to kill Mr Bonham at a skip bin in Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, where his financial business was located, but accidentally left the 63year-old’s wallet behind, the court was told.

After the killing, Ma allegedly impersonated Mr Bonham and phoned the centre management at the shopping centre in order to collect the wallet. The trial continues today.