Townsville financial planner Anthony Vivian Dick jailed for eight years for fraud

For more than a decade a Queensland financial planner swindled money from clients’ super and savings accounts to fund expenses like school fees and a boat. He will now spend years behind bars.

BEHIND BARS

The aptly-named Anthony Vivian Dick quietly ripped off $1.1m from his clients over an 11-year period and splashed out the loot on a car, boat and school fees.

The former Townsville financial planner forged signatures, hid bank transfers and took other calculated steps to swindle the money out of super, pension and savings accounts.

‘Just having a laugh’: Sizzler sues Burger Urge over cheesy ‘tribute’

$42m reasons: Brisbane firm could shift production to US

Dick, a 55-year-old native of Malaysia who plead guilty to 11 counts of fraud, will now pay for his crimes.

He’s just been sentenced to eight years in the iron motel, with no parole before two years and eight months.

Dick defrauded 13 of his clients between 2006 and 2017, siphoning amounts of between $5000 and $30,000 from customers of his now-defunct Advantage Financial Services.

Records reveal he first held a financial services licence in 2004 and launched the Advantage business in late 2013.

Judge Julie Dick (no relation) described the conduct as having had a significant impact on his victims and diminishing public trust in the financial services industry.

Following sentencing, ASIC deputy chair Daniel Crennan said Anthony Dick had been found to have breached the trust of his clients, who included unsophisticated investors and intellectually disabled consumers whom he deliberately targeted.

“These vulnerable clients placed their trust in Mr Dick and relied heavily on him to manage their finances,” Crennan said. “His conduct involved a gross breach of this trust and resulted in significant losses for his clients over more than ten years. His sentencing should send a strong message that such conduct will lead to individuals involved being brought before the court to face criminal charges.”

TO THE RESCUE

For more than a decade they provided emergency response services to some of Queensland’s biggest companies.

Brisbane-based ER24 Pty Ltd dispensed medical, security and rescue teams for the likes of Glencore, Thiess, Wesfarmers, BMA and Peabody Energy.

But it’s all gone pear-shaped now for co-founder Matt Willis and three other directors of the firm.

They tipped the company into liquidation this week, tapping Nik Khatri from insolvency mob Worrells to clean up the mess.

Matt Willis, co-founder of ER24.

Khatri said Thursday that it’s still too early to say why the business collapsed or how much money is owed to unsecured creditors.

Willis told us he and his three South African-born co-directors had brought the concept to Australia, where it was launched in 2008.

But when City Beat tried asking a few follow up questions, he declined to comment further and hung up on your diarist.

Fellow director and majority owner Chris Wicht didn’t return a call seeking comment. He works as the chief financial officer at the Medicross Medical group of GP clinics on the Gold Coast.

These gents were instrumental in launching ER24 in Johannesburg about 20 years ago. From a modest start, it has grown to have 59 branches across South Africa, with 300 emergency vehicles and more than 700 staff supporting both public and private hospitals.

When they opened the doors for business in Queensland, the initial focus was just on the mining industry.

But it soon evolved into a “one-stop shop’’ for the oil, gas and construction sectors too.

The company dispatched paramedics, nurses, emergency response teams, security and consultants to deal with a whole raft of crises.

To service remote areas they teamed up with the likes of CareFlight and Central Queensland Helicopter Rescue Services, as well as Wicht’s employer, Medicross.

KEEPING COOL

He touted it as “a revolution in food refrigeration and transportation’’.

Queensland entrepreneur Ben Rogers developed a replacement for dry ice in early 2017 which he claimed was an eco-friendly way to cool foods faster and longer than with dry ice.

Rogers subsequently won a key environmental award for the breakthrough concept and his business outside Rockhampton snared a deal with Gate Gourmet, a leading Sydney-based supplier of food to airlines and airport lounges.

Ben Rogers, founder of Ecoslice.

But a dispute with investors over intellectual property in his Ecoslice group has proved disastrous.

Two subsidiaries of Ecoslice Holdings Pty Ltd collapsed this week, with liquidator Michael Beck estimating the combined debts at about $3.1m.

Beck told us that he now plans to sell the IP, which might provide for a return to some of the creditors.

Rogers could not be reached for comment.

But corporate records show that he still controls several intact entities, including B&Z Refrigeration Solutions, which he only launched in July.