Water ‘fraudster’ tapped for $16m after sale of farm for $100m

Authorities have gone to court to force a Queensland cotton farmer to pay $16 million to the state’s Public Trustee after a “covert source” told them the accused water fraudster had sold his farm for more than $100 million.

AUTHORITIES have gone to court to force an award-winning Queensland cotton farmer to pay $16 million to the state’s Public Trustee after a “covert source” told them the accused water fraudster had sold his farm for more than $100 million.

John Douglas Norman, 43, a former Australian Cotton Farmer Of The Year, from Toobeah in southern Queensland, has been charged with defrauding the Murray-Darling Basin water program of $20 million.

The charges are before the Brisbane Magistrates Court.

Last week the State Government was granted an urgent court order, forcing Norman to pay $15.7 million to the state’s Public Trustee, after the police received a tip that his company had sold its Queensland cotton and grain farms to a global corporate giant.

Norman must pay the $15.7 million once his deal with the $43 billion Canadian Manulife Financial Corporation settles, a Supreme Court judge has ruled.

The order was made under the Criminal Proceeds Confiscation Act.

The mega-deal was due to settle last week, court documents state.

Until the $15.7 million is paid, Norman’s share of the giant farms, west of Goondiwindi, will remain frozen by the Supreme Court.

The remaining share of the business is owned by his mother Aileen Joan Norman.

She has not been charged with any crimes and has not had her assets frozen.

The farms, spread over 18,000ha, are mostly irrigated and run along or close to the NSW-Queensland border, the court heard.

They are in “a core crop production region” and with “significant water entitlements”.

The farms and a $2 million riverfront Southport mansion, owned by Norman’s wife Virginia, were raided and searched by police during the probe, court documents state.

Last August Norman was slapped with 12 charges, relating to the alleged defrauding of $20,570,640 in federal funding given to the state’s department of natural resources over seven years until 2017.

The case is continuing in the Brisbane Magistrates Court and is next in court on February 4.

Detective Sergeant Brendan Murphy, of the rural major and organised crime squad, told the Supreme Court he applied to the court to freeze Norman’s properties after “a covert source” alerted him that the sale of one of Norman’s farms, Kalanga, had been finalised on December 15.

Norman’s chief financial officer, Stephen Alan Evans, 53, has also been charged with four counts of fraud. The Supreme Court case is set for February 6 for a directions hearing.