Bruce Kerr makes bid to move extortion, hacking trial from Rockhampton

Rockhampton District Court was provided an update in allegations against a Rockhampton business owner, with his lawyer suggesting media reports could impact the case.

Bruce Kerr

A Central Queensland business owner, who denies allegations he extorted and hacked a computer of a former customer, could have his pending trial transferred to another part of Queensland.

Bruce Arthur Kerr, 54, is charged with extortion and computer hacking over allegations he threatened to interfere with a client’s computer systems if he wasn’t paid.

Rockhampton District Court was provided an update in the case on February 17 where defence barrister Andrew Hoare said he had drafted submissions to send to the Crown prosecution the next week.

“In addition to that, there has been significant reporting of Mr Kerr’s matter in such a fashion that it may give rise to an application for a change of venue,” Mr Hoare said.

He said he would be able to provide an update at the next mention on March 31.

This comes after Judge Jeff Clarke, in December, informed parties he “won’t have anything to do with this matter other than mentions and listing”.

No reason for that move was provided during court proceedings.

Mr Kerr, who owns and operates Kerr Solutions IT in Berserker, was ordered to stand trial in the District Court by Magistrate Jason Schubert in July 2022 after an unsuccessful ‘no case’ bid in Rockhampton Magistrates Court.

He claimed, through Mr Hoare during the ‘no case’ hearing, that he legally was allowed to carry out actions that allegedly caused disruption to the customer’s $150,000-a-day business operations.

Barrister Andrew Hoare.

The court was told Mr Kerr allegedly threatened to cut off client Green Steel’s computers, which were operating to a server under Mr Kerr’s control, if outstanding invoices were not paid by 2pm.

He said Mr Kerr allegedly put the threat in writing when he emailed Green Steel owner Brett Steven Green at 1.15pm on May 27, again asking for the invoices to be paid by 2pm to “guarantee uninterrupted access to all their business systems”.

Green Steel sells steel products in retail and wholesale fashion, with three branches in Queensland – Brisbane, Rockhampton and Emerald – and employs about 50 people.

According to court documents The Morning Bulletin viewed in July, Mr Green wrote in a statement that Mr Kerr hand-delivered two invoices about May 17 0r 18, which had ‘discount expiry’ due dates of May 27, 2021, and June 30, 2021.

“The invoices did not state any actual terms, just a discount expiry,” Mr Green wrote.

“I closely examined the invoices and identified that the itemised services and products that (Mr Kerr) was billing us for were not what we had asked him to do.

“From then on though, there was nothing but problems with our systems.

“The system would crash all the time and we had nothing but problems with it.”