Daniel Clark avoids jail after he defrauded more than $200,000 from a not-for-profit association

An alcoholic gambling addict boss who spent $200,000 he defrauded from his employer on sex clubs and booze has been spared jail – so he can get a job while on home detention.

Daniel Luke Clark pleaded guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from the South Australian Sports Medicine Association over a five-year period. Picture: Supplied

As the head of a non-profit organisation, Daniel Luke Clark was entrusted with a limitless credit card – which he used to feed his limitless appetite for sex clubs, alcohol and gambling.

So voracious were Clark’s addictions that he dropped $45,000 at a strip club in a single night, which he falsely wrote off as expenditure on “website video development” and “app building”.

On Friday, Clark’s high-rolling five-year run came to an end as he received a home detention sentence in the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court for fraud and dishonesty offences.

Magistrate Jayanthi Pandya told Clark his legacy was the near-destruction of the SA Sports Medicine Association – a group that had “nurtured” him – and ordered he get a job and pay it back.

“The impact of your severe and prolonged offending has been deep and devastating ... your actions came close to ruining your colleagues, emotionally and financially,” she said.

“There’s no excuse for your deliberate, systemic and prolonged offending ... the time for covering up and transferring blame is over.”

Clark, 41, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of dishonestly dealing with property without the owner’s consent, and one count of dishonest dealings with documents.

Between December 2015 and December 2020, he took $216,380 from SASMA and spent it on strip clubs, massage parlours and other adult entertainment.

Clark was asked to leave SASMA after his spending in a UK sex club was discovered.

Clark was still active on Tinder even as his prosecution progressed.

The not-for-profit only became aware of the theft during a 2022 expenses review, long after Clark had been asked to step down for spending $65,000 in a UK sex club in two days.

The discovery cost Clark his job at Bunbury City Council in WA, but did not stop him starting a Tinder profile seeking a partner who “loves an adventure”.

On Friday, Ms Pandya said Clark had doctored more than 130 invoices and accounting entries to hide his actions, “undeterred” by the possibility of discovery.

She noted he had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, as well as alcohol and gambling disorders, but they could only explain and not excuse his crimes.

She also noted his remorse, but questioned how much of it arose from his own embarrassment, and that of his family, over media coverage of the case.

Ms Pandya jailed Clark for two years and eight months, with a 15-month non-parole period.

She ordered that be served on home detention so that Clark could gain employment and pay compensation to SASMA.