Former fitness boss’ last minute bid to change guilty fraud plea

A former fitness entrepreneur accused of fraud in excess of $100,000 made a shock court decision on Thursday amid the saga.

Jacob Henley at a gym fit out.

A former fitness entrepreneur accused of fraud is now seeking to vacate his plea of guilty to the charge.

Jacob Robert Henley was scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday however the founder of now closed gym Fit Village did not show.

Henley had pleaded guilty last year to fraud to the value of least $100,000 in relation to Fit Village at Paddington.

Sentencing had been adjourned on a number of occasions previously, Brisbane’s District Court heard.

On Wednesday the court registry received correspondence from Henley that he was seeking an application to vacate his guilty plea and asked the sentence be delisted and mentioned later this month.

Crown prosecutor Cameron Wilkins suggested one option could be to issue a warrant to lie at the registry for 24 hours.

However Judge Carl Heaton said he had difficulty with that because the Toowoomba based Henley was self-represented.

“He may not have appreciated that simply sending a letter through to the registry is not enough to have a matter adjourned off,” Judge Heaton said.

“It seems that there’s little utility in trying to force him on at this point.

“If he wants to engage legal representatives and advance an argument that his plea of guilty should be vacated then that needs to be done on material.”

The matter was adjourned to Friday at 9.45am for mention.