KENNETH Evans, the former chief financial officer and director of TEAC Australia, has been sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment, wholly suspended for three years, in the Victorian County Court.
Following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Evans pleaded guilty to five contraventions of the Corporations Act, including two counts of failing to act in good faith in the best interests of TEAC Australia, one count of dishonestly using his position as a director of TEAC Australia, one count of falsifying company books and one count of providing false or misleading information to the auditor of TEAC Australia.
Evans attributed responsibility for his actions to TEAC Australia’s chief executive and principal, Gavin Muir (deceased), claiming that he was merely a senior employee carrying out the instructions of the company’s principal.
In July 2003, Muir’s private company, Bay Street Corporation PTY LTD (in liquidation) borrowed $6 million from TEAC to help settle the purchase of a site in Port Melbourne previously owned by TEAC.
Acting on Muir’s instructions, Evans failed to lodge the appropriate securitisation documents for the loan.
In the days preceding the appointment of the administrators in March 2005, Evans gave instructions to the company bookkeeper to make false entries in the books of TEAC Australia to reduce the outstanding balance of this loan.
Evans also provided false information to the auditor on the true extent of the TEAC Australia debtors book.
TEAC was sold in 2007 to Singaporean interests who are now trading under the TEAC name. Bay St Corporation is currently in external administration following the appointment of liquidators in April 2006.
Australian Property Journal
