Man, 83, jailed for investor rip-offs

A SWINDLER who used his golden years to dupe investors into pouring their hard-earned cash into short-lived start-ups has been jailed at 83.

Karl William Brooks (right) was sentenced yesterday for conning a Cairns doctor into investing $20,000 in his rainforest water scheme and then while on bail for that scam, trying the same con on a cluey Innisfail retiree who instead turned the tables on Brooks by helping police set up a sting.

Judge Tracy Fantin sentenced Brooks – who had earlier pleaded guilty to fraud and attempted fraud – to two years and six months’ jail

Cairns District Court heard that 20 years before he spruiked rainforest water to investors in 2016, he had drummed up interest in his gold mining company while it was in administration and its equipment held by liquidators.

Brooks suckered nearly $300,000 from his marks on that occasion, including $50,000 from a miner who thought his money would be kept in a trust.

Instead, it was used to pay company expenses.

Delusional or in denial, Brooks’ MO included throwing good money after bad in the hope the cash would save the ventures. He fed investors lies about the company’s health including nonexistent land sales, infrastructure and funding from a source in Texas, USA.

Joseph Jacobs, defending, said his client had “gilded the lily”, but had offended out of his belief in the company.

That faith saw him reoffend while on bail and coming unstuck in Innisfail under police surveillance.

“It was not a sham to defraud the public and run away with the money,” Mr Jacobs said. He told the court Brooks had this week written a $20,000 cheque for his victim.

Judge Fantin said Brooks’ lies were his undoing.

“You genuinely believed in the venture and hoped it would be successful ... but you lied consistently to induce people to invest in the venture, which was at no time successful,” Judge Fantin said.

“There’s nothing wrong in trying to get a high risk venture off the ground – the difficulty is when you lie to people to induce investment...”

She declared a parole release date of June 14.