Bitter accountant’s $600,000 revenge on car dealership

A disgraced accountant has been jailed after admitting to defrauding a prominent car dealer by $600,0000

Former Boettcher Motors accountant Philip Horsfall has been jailed after admitting ripping the car dealership off to the tune of $600,000 in a series of frauds.

A ONCE valued accountant spent 20 years of his life working at a successful Ipswich business, only to blatantly rip it off to the tune of $600,000 in a series of frauds spanning a decade.

He later told investigating police his frauds were “easy” to carry out and were borne from resentment over his pay.

A court heard Philip Horsfall, a now discredited financial controller, held the belief he was not being paid what he was worth and was topping up his superannuation.

The 67-year-old was this week jailed for his crime.

Appearing before Ipswich District Court, Philip Rodney Horsfall, from Parkinson, pleaded guilty to Crown prosecution charges that he committed fraud by dishonestly obtaining property from another as an employee of at least $100,000; and fraudulently falsified/altered a record.

Horsfall was first caught three years ago by another employee of Boettcher Motors, who became suspicious and queried why a cash transaction of $10,000 had gone into his personal bank account.

An investigation discovered the previously trusted and well regarded financial controller had been helping himself to car dealership funds from as far back as 2006.

The total amount of fraudulent transactions was $598,922, the court was told.

His offending spanned more than a decade, from November 3, 2006, to April 4, 2017.

Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC sentenced Horsfall to a five-year jail term, and to a concurrent two-year jail term.

Both sentences will be suspended after he serves 15-months behind bars.

The sentence also took into account the fact Horsfall repaid the full amount.

In agreed Crown facts, Horsfall was first employed by Ian Boettcher Motors in 1997 as a financial controller.

As part of his role he was responsible for overseeing wages and salary payments each week, setting sales targets and incentive schemes, and making purchases on behalf of company.

In May 2017 another employee of the company discovered a $10,000 transaction from the company’s business bank account had been transferred to Horsfall’s personal bank account on April 4, 2017.

The transaction was brought to the attention of Ian Boettcher, the director of the company.

Mr Boettcher immediately held a meeting with Horsfall, in which the accountant admitted to taking the money.

He advised he would repay the company $10,000.

Mr Boettcher then engaged a forensic accountant to go through the business bank accounts to locate any further fraudulent transactions.

The forensic accountant located multiple fraudulent transactions dating back to 2006 which could only have been made by Horsfall.

Police were then contacted.

Police obtained the business account records and Horsfall’s bank statements.

Together with another accountant from Boettcher Motors, police were able to identify $557,784.25 of fraudulent transactions linked to Horsefall.

The frauds were conducted in a number of different ways including direct deposits into his personal account, payment of his credit card debts from the company account, and payment of his personal bills via BPay from the company account.

The forensic accountant identified a further $41,137.75 of unauthorised wage and superannuation payments where Horsfall had manipulated the payroll system to pay himself more than he was entitled to.

In January 2019, Horsfall was taken to Yamanto police station and took part in a recorded interview.

In making admissions to the fraudulent transactions, Horsfall told police he believed he was being underpaid

He told police that he implemented business strategies that he believed led to the business becoming the success that it was, but he was not financially rewarded.

Horsfall stated that he felt he was paid below industry standard, and rarely received bonuses.

In relation to the logistics of the fraud, Horsfall told police that there were occasions where the company credit card would reach its limit, and so he would use his own credit card for a purchase and would then reimburse himself from the company account.

He advised police that he started by transferring not only what he was owed for the legitimate purchase he made, but whatever was necessary to clear his credit card debt.

He would make direct deposits into his personal account with a reference on the transaction that appeared to be legitimate for the company account to be paying.

He told police that when he would report to the company director about company finances on a monthly basis, he was required to produce financial reports generated through the business software, which detailed all of the expenditures, including his fraudulent transactions.

Because the company director was required to sign off personally on these reports, Horsfall said he had to falsify monthly reconciliation reports to cover his fraud.

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