Unlicensed builder Mark Anthony Webster pleads guilty to defrauding businesses to fund pokie addiction

An unlicensed builder scammed more than $600,000 from multiple businesses to fund his pokies habit, a southeast Queensland court has heard.

File image of pokies machine. Photo: Max Fleet / NewsMail

A unlicensed builder has faced a southeast Queensland court for scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars from businesses to fund his gambling habit.

Mark Anthony Webster, 60, was paid a total of more than $600,000 from multiple businesses to complete shop fitouts, the Brisbane District Court heard at his sentence on Wednesday, June 5.

The court heard the father of three had defrauded $176,000 from a restaurant business in Emerald and $95,000 from a shop owner in Armidale in northern NSW in 2023.

Webster had provided them with a business name and ABN that belonged to someone who employed him 15 years earlier, the court heard.

He also engaged in work without a building licence, completed little to no work on the jobs and never refunded the money paid to him.

The court heard Webster had previously been sentenced to five and a half years jail in November, 2023 for defrauding significant sums from other businesses in a similar fashion.

The sum of those frauds combined with the new frauds totalled over $600,000, the court heard.

Judge Paul Smith said it was a particularly aggravating feature that the two new offences occurred while Webster was on bail for the earlier fraud charges in 2023.

Defence barrister Martin Longhurst said his client previously had trades qualifications and genuine registrations.

But he had been struggling with a gambling addiction, coupled with a drinking problem, at the time of the offending.

The court heard Webster had turned to gaming machines after the breakdown of his marriage and increasing financial difficulties.

Mr Longhurst said Webster started taking on new jobs to try to pay off his previous jobs while “haemorrhaging money” through the pokies.

Judge Smith said it was “like a big ponzi scheme”.

Mr Longhurst agreed. “It’s exactly like that mindset of a gambler — if I can have one more win, I can make all these reds disappear,” he said.

Judge Smith said he would need to structure a sentence that considered the total head sentence Webster would have received if all of his offences were dealt with at the same time.

He said an overall sentence of eight years in jail for the new offences, on top of the previous fraud convictions, would be appropriate.

Webster pleaded guilty to fraud in excess of $100,000 and fraud in excess of $30,000.

He was sentenced to two years’ jail, to be served cumulatively on top of the original five-and-a-half-year sentence.

Parole eligibility was set for June 19, 2026.