Jail time for $500k rort
A FORMER Geelong businessman has been jailed for 4½ years over a huge rort targeting the ANZ bank.
Clinton Gebert, formerly of Ocean Grove, showed little emotion in the County Court at Geelong yesterday as he was sentenced to the prison term after defrauding the bank of more than $500,000.
The corporate adviser was also jailed for cruelly deceiving a woman out of $34,000 after contacting her in 2015 to offer help with a crippling debt.
But his accomplice in the ANZ scheme was spared jail time, with Judge Michael Bourke ruling Highton man Heath MacFadyen could be appropriately punished with a lengthy corrections order.
The duo pleaded guilty last month to a range of deception charges stemming from dodgy loan applications submitted between 2013 and 2016.
The court heard Gebert, 49, was the main driver of the scam and involved in all four of the applications.
MacFadyen, 39, played a hand in two applications.
Three of the applications were successful, with the ANZ paying out more than $600,000 in loans for properties near Avoca. It emerged the applications were littered with lies and sought $200,000-plus loans for lots of land that were worth only $1000.
Gebert also listed his grandfather as the vendor in falsified sales contracts submitted with the applications, even though had been dead since 1989.
The pair came undone in 2016 when authorities were alerted about a suspicious loan application seeking $100,000 from HomeSec Business Finance.
It was later discovered Gebert used some of his money for a deposit on a property in Ocean Grove, while MacFadyen directed some cash to his wife’s frequent flyer card, as well as a bank account for his Geelong Finance Hub business.
ANZ was able to recover some money but was still short-changed more than $531,000.
The court heard Gebert’s marriage ended after his wife learned of the allegations against him, while MacFadyen was declared bankrupt last year.
Judge Bourke said Gebert’s offending was particularly serious and motivated by greed.
Gebert will be eligible for parole after serving 2½ years. MacFadyen must complete 450 hours of unpaid community work as part of a three-year corrections order.
The pair were also ordered to repay the ANZ.