Ex-prize fighter launderer makes way back to ‘straight and narrow’

An ex-prize-fighter and participant in an infamous bikie brawl, who broke his former partner’s toes with a vodka bottle, has returned to prison for laundering almost $200,000 in dirty proceeds of a boiler room scam, spending it on his lifestyle.

An ex-prize-fighter and key participant in an infamous bikie brawl, who broke his former partner’s toes with a vodka bottle, has returned to prison for laundering almost $200,000 in dirty proceeds of a boiler room scam, spending it on his lifestyle.

Jason ‘JT’ Trouchet, 48, was in the Brisbane District Court on Friday before Judge Michael Byrne where he was told he had “stepped seriously out of line for a number of years” but he was now making his “way back … to the straight and narrow”.

Trouchet pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly money laundering $189,905 between January 26, 2012 and December 6, 2013 on the Gold Coast.

He was not charged over laundering the proceeds of cold-call investment scams until three years ago, when he was extradited from NSW after he finished his three-and-a-half year sentence for violently assaulting his ex-partner in Sydney in 2016, including breaking his former partner’s toes with a vodka bottle.

Jason Trouchet at Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday.

“This is not a case of somebody through gullibility, holding on to money and passing it on to others for minimal reward,” Judge Byrne said of the laundering of the cash.

“You yourself received the figure of nearly $190,000, you did not pass any of it on to anybody else, it was used for your own expenses,” he said.

“Boiler room frauds, as they are called, have a very serious impact on unsuspecting or vulnerable members of our society,” he told Trouchet.

Mr Trouchet, who took part in the infamous Broadbeach bikie brawl, has a criminal history including a conviction last year in the Southport District Court for supplying methamphetamine and GHB in 2014.

The former Finks bikie was fined $1000 for affray in 2014 for the bikie brawl at the Aura lounge bar at Broadbeach where Bandidos bikies terrified diners as they tried to find Trouchet as part of a feud triggered by a love triangle involving then-Bandidos enforcer Jacques Teamo.

Trouchet was also found guilty of serious assault in 2000, when he was 26 years old but no conviction was recorded, the court heard.

Judge Byrne said Trouchet’s lack of recent offending and glowing character references from friends showed he was “at least making steps towards” his rehabilitation and making his “way back … to the straight and narrow”.

“You stepped seriously out of line for a number of years there,” Judge Byrne said.

Judge Byrne told Trouchet that he was aware that there was a substantial risk that the $190,000 paid into his bank accounts were “tainted” or came from crime.

“You were prepared to take the chance that you were living off the proceeds of crime,” he said.

Trouchet was jailed for 18 months’ for the money laundering on Friday, to be suspended after serving three months.

He risks going back to jail if he reoffends within two years, and a conviction was recorded.

Trouchet’s lawyer told the court his client planned to return to live in the Northern Territory after serving his sentence so he could care for his seriously injured brother and his brother’s children, who are being cared for by their grandparents.

He previously ran a garden maintenance business Evergreen Landscaping in Darwin.

Trouchet’s new partner, a beauty therapist, was in court for his sentencing on Friday.