South Brisbane man Hussein Ahmed, 29, sentenced for defrauding developer of $35K

Employee of collapsed Logan developer Watermark Homes took more than $35,000 from the business, then threatened to sue for defamation.

South Brisbane construction manager Hussein Ahmed, 29, was sentenced to a two-and-a-half year suspended jail term today for defrauding a former employer of more than $35,000 in February 2016. The money was repaid. Picture: LinkedIn

AN estimator for Beenleigh developer Watermark Group diverted more than $35,000 of payments to his own account four months before the company’s collapse in June 2016.

Bizarrely, a month after resigning when his employer confronted him about the missing money, South Brisbane man Hussein Ahmed, 29, threatened them via his lawyers with a defamation suit – he had lost a subsequent job due to the allegation of wrongdoing.

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Ahmed used his company login to access a program called Databuild, where he substituted his bank details on two subcontractor payments, $30,000 from Brisbane concreter Slab Solutions and $5130.90 from a tiling contractor.

The two transactions occurred sometime between 5 – 17 February.

After the missing money was discover, Ahmed called in sick the following two days, February 18 – 19. He resigned on February 22, the day Slab Solutions confirmed they had not received their money.

Both Suncorp and Commonwealth banks worked together to stop the transactions, but on March 14 Ahmed told his employers, which traded as Watermark Homes, he could only repay $5000. The other $30,000 was gone.

Later that month, he threatened a defamation action. He was charged with fraud over $30,000 as an employee about a year later.

In Beenleigh District Court on Friday, defence counsel Scott Lynch told the court that his client had had the $30,000 owed in a trust account with his lawyers since 2018 waiting to return it.

“He has had a lapse of judgment of which he is contrite,” Mr Lynch said.

Crown prosecutor Zachary Kaplan noted the collapse of Watermark Group would have occurred with or without Ahmed’s fraud.

Its licence was suspended by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission in July 2015, after an investigation found “the company had failed to meet minimum financial requirements”.

Judge David Kent said Ahmed’s defamation threat was “inappropriate” but was impressed by his work history. Ahmed is still employed in the construction industry and had a reference written by his current employer.

He accepted it was “out of character” for Ahmed, who has not offended since.

Ahmed was sentenced to a two-and-a-half year term of imprisonment, wholly suspended.

A conviction was recorded.