Former Liberal Party chief turned fugitive John Malcolm West to be supervised for historic fraud offences

An international fugitive and former SA Liberal Party president has learned his penalty for the historic fraud offences he dodged for 30 years.

John West and his wife Verna Burnard outside the District Court after an earlier hearing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

An international fugitive and former state Liberal Party president has been placed under supervision in the community for three years for multiple historic fraud offences committed while he was a lawyer.

John Malcolm West, 76, was placed under the supervision of the Parole Board for three years and one month after he was found unfit to stand trial on 27 counts of fraudulent conversion due to his advancing Alzheimer’s disease.

The District Court had earlier found the objective elements of the offences – in which he moved customer money into a false trust account for his own use in the early 1980s – had been established beyond reasonable doubt.

In setting a limiting term on Thursday, Judge Paul Muscat said he must impose an equivalent supervision term to that which he would have imposed had West been found guilty of the offences, but he could not punish West further for fleeing the country.

“Many will feel that by fleeing the jurisdiction in 1987 and establishing a new life for himself overseas the defendant has escaped being punished for what he did,” he said.

“However the court is not permitted to increase a sentence, or in this case a limiting term, because an offender has fled the jurisdiction.

“The court completely understands that the views of the victims and some members of the community will be that the victims have been denied justice through a finding that the defendant was unfit to stand trial.”

But, he said the court has legal frameworks for dealing with offenders who have a diagnosed mental impairment such as West’s.

He said West’s prognosis was poor, consistent with the degenerative nature of Alzheimer’s disease, and will likely require professional care services and eventually take his life. He said there was no risk West would ever offend again.

John Malcolm West in March 1986.

John Malcolm West in October 1979.

West skipped the country just as he was due to stand trial in the Supreme Court for the offending.

He was found to have stolen money from some clients and illegally used funds to pay other clients when he was a partner and sole practitioner at a law firm in Adelaide between 1981 and 1984.

In total, he illegally converted $87,241 of his client’s money, including withdrawing cheques in the names of hospitals and senior barristers, but paying them into his own trust account. The court had earlier heard that West had opened a bank account which his fellow lawyers thought was an office account, but which West funnelled client funds and had used for his own purposes.

Using a false passport, he fled to Africa with his wife, former Olympic sprinter Verna Burnard, where the pair moved between Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. The couple also lived in the Middle East and in the UK, where West acquired an Irish passport.

John Malcolm West at the City Watchhouse in February 1985.

Verna Burnard during a race in 1979.

He remained on the run for more than 30 years, before returning to Australia in April last year to visit his elderly mother and mother-in-law.

His daughter, a doctor, had become concerned about his declining cognition and in applying for a Medicare card on his behalf she unwittingly alerted authorities to his presence in Australia.

He was wanted on a warrant for his offending and was arrested in Townsville, Queensland, where he was granted bail to return to Adelaide and present himself to the Supreme Court.

He was remanded in custody as a flight risk and later released on home detention bail.

Judge Muscat imposed a number of conditions on West’s limiting term, including that he be supervised by the Parole Board and not leave the state without permission.