Court of Criminal Appeal decides fate of Roxy Jacenko’s jailed husband Oliver Curtis

DISTRAUGHT Sydney PR queen Roxy Jacenko has the heartbreaking task of telling her small children that Daddy won’t be home for Christmas after her crooked banker husband Oliver Curtis lost his appeal on his 12-month prison sentence.

• Pixie has terrible days: Roxy reluctant to celebrate Christmas

PUBLIC relations queen Roxy Jacenko has the heartbreaking task of telling her small children that “Daddy won’t be home for Christmas” after her crooked banker husband Oliver Curtis lost his appeal on his 12-month prison sentence.

The director of PR firm Sweaty Betty was not at the Court of Criminal Appeal this morning when a panel of three justices unanimously dismissed the appeal.

Ms Jacenko, 36, has told the media she is reluctant to put up a Christmas tree because she told her children, Pixie, 5, and Hunter, 2, that their father would be home for the celebration.

Distraught ... Roxy Jacenko drives her car through Double Bay today. Picture: John Grainger

Appeal ... Stockbroker Oliver Curtis is escorted to a prison van to begin his sentence.

Ms Jacenko told Who magazine, “My mum said to me the other day ‘I think I’m going to get a Christmas tree’.

“I said, ‘You can’t, because I told Pixie and Hunter their father would be home by Christmas. It was so far away then ... Now here we are.”

At Curtis’ October appeal, top silk Bret Walker SC argued for the conviction to be overturned on the grounds the Crown had not proven the charge of conspiracy to commit insider trading because it did not establish the “materiality” of the information passed to Curtis by his co-accused, former St Ignatius College mate John Hartman.

Curtis, the son of mining magnate Nick Curtis, was jailed for at least 12 months over the $1.4 million illegal trading scam with school friend Hartman that the pair hatched in their early 20s to fund a luxury, jetsetting lifestyle.

The 31-year-old was found guilty by a jury of 45 illegal trades prompted by tips from Hartman in his work as a equities trader for Orion Asset Management.

The pair spent the profits on expensive vehicles, gambling expeditions, overseas holidays and to pay the rent on a $3000-a-week luxury Bondi apartment.

Oliver Curtis on holidays with Roxy Jacenko.

Roxy Jacenko regularly visited her husband Oliver Curtis in jail.

Jacenko has been quite open about the effect her husband’s prison sentence has had on their young children.

Hartman turned Curtis into authorities in 2009 after he was caught doing his own illegal trading through which he made a profit of $5.9 million over three years.

He was jailed in 2010 for 15 months receiving a 25 per cent discount for his early guilty plea and a further 10 per cent for giving evidence in court against Curtis.

Since his jailing in June, Jacenko has been quite open with the media about the effect her husband’s prison sentence has had on herself and their young children.

Jacenko revealed that weeks after Curtis was sentenced in June she was diagnosed with breast cancer and let a TV crew from Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes film her surgery to have a lump removed.

Jacenko also revealed on the Kyle and Jackie O show that she was putting $100 a week in Curtis’ prison bank account to purchase “buy-ups” which included toiletries, chocolate, biscuits and savoury food snacks, and packaged meals like pasta Alfredo, Singapore noodles and tofu with vegetables.