‘Deplorable’: Line dance father and son sentenced for swindling senior citizens

A father and son duo who swindled 303 senior citizens out of more than $260,000 by selling fake line dancing trips before changing their identities and going on the run for a year have been sentenced for the “deplorable” crime.

A father and son duo who swindled 303 senior citizens out of more than $260,000 by selling fake line dancing trips before changing their identities and going on the run for a year have been sentenced for the “deplorable” crime.

Brett Robert Jenkins, 41, ran a successful dance business in Brisbane, hosting weekly classes as well as arranging regular interstate and overseas trips for line dancers.

But in 2009 he gambled away more than $120,000 paid by clients for a trip, prompting his parents to remortgage their home to ensure the holiday went ahead and leading to his father Bruce John Jenkins, 70, taking over the books for the business.

The Brisbane District Court on Monday heard that between 2017 and 2019, the father and son duo took $267,605 from 303 line dancing customers, most aged 60 plus, for line dancing trips they had advertised.

Brett Robert Jenkins, 39, outside court

But the trips never happened, with all the customers told the holidays were cancelled at the last minute and none of the money refunded.

The father and son pleaded guilty on Monday to one count each of aggravated fraud in excess of $100,000.

The court heard forensic accounting analysis revealed Brett Jenkins had gambled away more than $700,000 on horses and pokies, including the money taken from clients.

The offending was discovered in March 2019 when the pair disappeared, abandoning the line dancing classes, leaving their homes and ceasing contact with family and the complainants whose money they had taken for the fake trips.

The pair changed their identities and appearance and managed to avoid detection for a year before they were found by police in Caloundra in 2020.

The father and son spent 589 days in custody before they were released on bail.

Barrister Frank Walsh said his client Brett Jenkins found his time in custody “quite traumatic”.

He said Jenkins could no longer work in the line dancing industry because his “reputation is ruined”, and that he was now undertaking studies in horticulture in the hope of pursuing a career in that field.

Bruce John Jenkins

Barrister John Cook acted for Bruce Jenkins, whom he said was “wildly ashamed of his behaviour” that he said he had committed in an attempt to help his son.

Judge Paul Smith said the duo’s conscious decision to steal money from hundreds of clients was a serious example of fraud and agreed with the Crown’s description of it being “deplorable”.

Both men were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, immediately suspended after taking the 589 days already served into account.