Sydney Swans Foundation board member Bob Critchley and his wife ordered to pay Goway Travel about $100,000

For years, Sydney’s Bob Critchley and his wife enjoyed ultra-cheap travel. But a court has found they should have known their agent had gone “rogue”, in a ruling with implications for 1100 other clients.

A top Sydney businessman has been ordered to pay a travel company about $100,000 after a court found he and his wife should have known an agent who sold them packages at “substantially below market rates” had gone “rogue”.

In 2020, Goway Travel filed civil legal action in the NSW Supreme Court against Bob Critchley and his spouse Lyn Tarbuck to recoup losses on “steeply discounted” trips they and their adult daughters bought from its operations manager Lisa Comito under a scheme for “staff, family and friends”.

Mr Critchley is a banking and finance guru who was a director of several well-known ASX-listed companies including Coates Hire and Noni B. The 80-year-old is still on the Sydney Swans Foundation board alongside ex Museum of Contemporary Art boss Liz Ann McGregor and former QBE chief Frank O’Halloran.

The court heard Mr Critchley and Ms Tarbuck had a long history with Ms Comito and had been at her wedding in 2010.

Sydney Swans Foundation board member Bob Critchley.

Justice Michael Slattery said in his recent judgment that Mr Critchley considered himself an “innocent deceived” by Ms Comito over five years to July 2018.

The judge accepted that this was the case for a couple of years.

“But he continued to see himself this way right to the end,” Justice Slattery said.

The key event, the judge determined, was in March 2015 when Ms Comito sent an email to Ms Tarbuck that included offering a complimentary business class flight to Australia for their US-based daughter after a “staff error” had caused a delay in ticket issuing.

“No detective work was required for the defendants to see this did not add up,” Justice Slattery said. Ms Comito had gone “too far.”

“It should in the circumstances have caused an honest and reasonable person with the knowledge of these defendants to realise that this conduct was unlikely to be an authorised part of Goway’s business model,” the judge said.

“It followed that it was likely that the benefits then being transferred to them by Ms Comito were unauthorised and there was real and not remote risk being applied by her in breach of her fiduciary duties to her employer.”

The judge found the couple should have asked questions of other people at Goway but didn’t.

The court ordered Mr Critchley and Ms Tarbuck “to pay and restore to the plaintiff the value of all travel and ancillary services received by them” after March 2015.

The exact amount is still to be determined.

Mr Critchley told The Daily Telegraph he understood their liability was for 30 to 40 per cent of the $377,000 Goway had claimed. They do not have to pay for travel before March 2015 or for some of their daughters’ trips.

Mr Critchley, who is now 80 years old, said he and his wife may appeal the decision.

“We have that option,” he said. “We’d done nothing wrong.”

Mr Critchley said he believed Goway may use the decision to chase as many as 1100 people who also got below-cost travel through Ms Comito.

Mr Critchley said he and his wife may appeal. Photos: Supplied

Goway did not respond to requests for comment.

Ms Comito could not be contacted and she did not give evidence in the Supreme Court case.

Justice Slattery said her motive was an “unexplained mystery” because she “did not solicit, and neither Mr Critchley nor Ms Tarbuck ever offer her, any consideration in exchange for the benefits they received.”

In 2022, Ms Comito was charged with 18 counts of “dishonestly obtaining financial advantage”. NSW Police withdrew the charges last year.

When The Telegraph asked why, a police spokeswoman said “we are unable to provide information.”

Mr Critchley, Ms Tarbuck and their daughters are not accused of any criminal wrongdoing.

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Originally published as Sydney Swans Foundation board member Bob Critchley and his wife ordered to pay Goway Travel about $100,000