Oliver Curtis hands over ring, watch and $50 to wife Roxy Jacenko as jail spell begins

AS Oliver Curtis became a prisoner yesterday, he was told to remove his gold Rolex watch, a wedding ring and hand over a $50 note. He briefly hugged his wife, PR guru Roxy Jacenko after Justice Lucy McCallum ordered he serve one year behind bars for conspiring to commit insider trading.

Security guards help clear a path for Roxy Jacenko after her husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for a year. Picture: John Grainger

• OLIVER CURTIS TRIAL: DUCATI WAS A BIRTHDAY PRESENT
• FORMER MATE DENIES LYING TO ACCOUNTANT
• ROXY JACENKO BEGS JUDGE NOT TO JAIL HUSBAND

AS Oliver Curtis became a prisoner yesterday morning he was told to remove his gold Rolex watch, a wedding ring and hand over a $50 note from his suit pocket. None of it would be needed in his new life at Silverwater prison.

As he passed them on to his glamorous publicist wife, Roxy Jacenko, the couple exchanged a hug and kiss.

She was crying and for the first time during the trial the stark reality of his being caught for his crimes seemed to wash over Curtis’ face.

Roxy Jacenko leaves the Supreme Court after the sentencing.

It was the first indication of the price he had paid for a crime motivated by greed and an insatiable appetite for the finer things in life.

The 30-year-old banker appeared to brace himself in the Supreme Court dock as Justice Lucy McCallum ordered he serve one year behind bars. She said no other penalty would do justice to the crime of conspiring to commit insider trading.

“While many people have spoken of his positive qualities in business and as a family man he shows no sign of progression beyond the self-interested pursuit of material wealth which prompted his offending,” Justice McCallum said in fixing a total term of two years imprisonment, the other year to be served once Curtis is released next June on a $2000 bond.

“I do not think any lesser sentence would adequately reflect the seriousness of the offence.”

Oliver Curtis being transported to prison after being sentenced. Picture: Craig Greenhill

While she found that Curtis’s best friend and fellow alumni from St Ignatius Riverview, John Joseph Hartman, was more culpable in the scheme that in total netted the pair more than $1.4 million, she found the banker was “complicit” and well aware of the source of the information.

Hartman was an equities trader at Orion Asset Management when he passed information on to Curtis, the pair using a BlackBerry messaging “ping” system in a bid to fly under the radar.

The son of high-profile Sydney obstetrician Keith Hartman spent 15 months behind bars, in the same jail his former friend will now reside in for the next year, and received a reduction in sentence for testifying against Curtis.

It is troubling that, unlike Mr Hartman, Mr Curtis has not “embraced responsibility for his offending,” Justice McCallum said.

Curtis did not give evidence at the three-week trial or during the sentencing hearing last week but some character references indicated he “regrets his failings”, the court heard.

Oliver Curtis and wife Roxy Jacenko arriving at Supreme Court yesterday.

He also agreed to forfeit $1.43 million in assets to settle proceedings being brought against him by Commonwealth prosecutors but still denies any wrongdoing.

“In that context, the forfeiture of the sum of $1.43 million ‘without admissions’ between verdict and sentence may be regarded as cynical,” Justice McCallum said.

“That is not an aggravating factor but I am not persuaded that Mr Curtis is entitled to any favourable consideration for contrition.”

Ms Jacenko, dressed all in black, covered her face with sunglasses yesterday as she left court.

The founder of PR firm Sweaty Betty was shielded from the big pack of waiting media by a security guard who shoved journalists out of the way as he helped steer her into a Range Rover which took her back to her Double Bay office.

The security detail had been present at the St James Rd court complex before 9am as camera crews and onlookers filled the street in anticipation of the arrival of the high-profile couple.

 

The trial has attracted huge media interest.

 

Shortly before 9.30am a hire car pulled up metres from the door and the couple made their way through the media, with Curtis taking his place in the dock and Ms Jacenko sitting as close as possible to her husband in the front row of the public gallery.

Last week Ms Jacenko prepared a lengthy letter to Justice McCallum urging her not to send her “Oli’’ to jail because he is the primary carer of their two young children, who “screech with excitement as soon as they see him ... no one else matters to them ... not even me”.

“If Oli were to be sent to jail our children will lose the close relationship that they have with their father for a period of time,” she wrote.

“Given their ages, I’m worried about the effect this will have.”

The letter was not mentioned specifically by Justice McCallum in her remarks, but she noted the support he will enjoy from his well-heeled family, including wealthy businessman father Nick Curtis, will assist in his ongoing rehabilitation.

“The prospect of family separation is always gutting, especially where young children are concerned, but Mr Curtis’s family is well-resourced and better placed than many to meet that event,” she said.

She also added, addressing a remark made in submissions last week by Curtis’s barrister Murugan Thangaraj SC about intense media scrutiny surrounding the case, “there is no evidence Mr Curtis himself has invited media attention; he is not to be equated with his wife in this context.”