Stephen Raymond Douglass: Coffs former accountant sentenced for fraud

The court heard the accountant and former football player stole money from his clients to facilitate a gambling addiction, leaving one family business to draw on their superannuation.

A disgraced former Coffs Harbour accountant faced further jail time for stealing “hundreds of thousands” from his clients to facilitate a gambling addiction.

Stephen Raymond Douglass, 70, faced sentence in Lismore District Court on Monday for two counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

The court heard Douglass acted as an accountant for two family businesses between 2012 and 2017 when he repeatedly misappropriated payments that were supposed to be going to the Australian Taxation Department but instead were funding his gambling habit.

In the case of a plumbing business owned by Scott Simpson, the court heard Douglass’ misappropriation led to excess contribution notices which were largely paid off from Mr Simpson’s superannuation.

In total, Douglass stole about $316,000 from the plumbing business.

The secondary company also lost thousands of dollars to Douglass’ addiction but were later paid back.

Douglass, a former professional footballer, used the money solely for sports gambling and had been previously sentenced to a minimum of four years behind bars in April 2019 for his fraud of Arc Attack Engineering.

Judge Jonathan Priestley said the deception manipulated the “existing trust” and longstanding relationships of his clients.

He said Douglass’ “deluded” and “doomed to fail thinking” meant he thought he could pay back clients’ when he landed a gambling win.

“While a gambling addiction may explain why something is occurring, it is not to be taken as causation or lessening an offender’s moral culpability,” he said.

In letters tendered to the court from his Gambling Help support person, Douglass’ “hopeless cycle” was corroborated.

“Eventually, the debt became so large, Stephen believed a big win was the only way out,” the court heard.

Judge Priestley told the court Douglass’ showed remorse stating “they did nothing wrong” in regards to his victims.

“He acknowledges his wrongdoing, he expresses remorse, he expresses sorrow,” he said.

Judge Priestley said Douglass’ mother’s gambling addiction couldn’t be said to lead the former accountant down a path he couldn’t get off though it did normalise the behaviour.

“White collar crime needs to be take very seriously,” Judge Priestley said.

“It occurs with the push of the pen and the shuffle of paper but it has a great impact.”

The court heard Douglass had since been deregistered as an accountant.

He convicted Douglass and sentenced him to an aggregated sentence of four years six months jail, backdated to May 28, 2020.

Douglass was heard from custody, saying ‘oh Jesus’ when the sentence was announced.

A non-parole sentence of two years and nine months was also made, meaning Douglass is first eligible for parole on February 27, 2023.