Lawyer bet $1m on NZ game

An Australian junior lawyer who impersonated a company director as part of a brazen A$10 million (NZ$10.56m) fraud has been sentenced to a maximum of six years behind bars after a court was told he had a gambling addiction on which he spent millions per day – including A$1 million (NZ$1.05m) on a provincial rugby game in New Zealand.

Brody Jack Clarke, 36, fraudulently obtained A$9.853 million from media mogul Bruce Gordon, one of his law firm’s largest clients, and two smaller entities over a period of roughly two years from December 2015 to September 2017.

In August and September 2017, he convinced a colleague to lend him his mobile phone and gave that number to Deutsche Bank, which was holding more than A$68 million for Gordon’s private company Birketu Pty Limited as part of a deal with the Nine Network.

He claimed the number belonged to Gordon’s son Andrew, a director of his father’s companies, and impersonated the younger Gordon when he authorised the bank to release A$6.95 million.

Further money was siphoned into Clarke’s bank account when he claimed it was his firm’s trust account. No such account existed.

Clarke spent an estimated A$100 million with betting agencies TAB and Sportsbet between 2015 and 2017, including a A$1.5 million bet on an NRL game between the Roosters and Cowboys, A$1 million on a New Zealand provincial rugby game, and A$1.2 million on two American football games.

In Sydney yesterday, Clarke was sentenced to a total of six years behind bars with a nonparole period of three years, after pleading guilty to six counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.