Cameron Gidley-Baird pleads guilty to defrauding landowners in Upper Hunter and rural NSW

There was an intensive two-year investigation before a member of a well-known Upper Hunter family was nabbed for fraud. Read what happened when he appeared in court.

Cameron Gidley-Baird has pleaded guilty to defrauding struggling farmers. Istock.

A member of a well-known Upper Hunter family has now admitted to defrauding multiple struggling farmers, siphoning away money over a 15-year period, before he was nabbed following an intensive two-year investigation.

In Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday, Cameron Randall Gidley-Baird - the son of now-deceased prominent Upper Hunter vet Gavin Gidley-Baird - appeared via video ink and pleaded guilty to five charges, including three of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and two counts of perverting the course of justice.

The remaining nine including more dishonestly charges, knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime and obtaining money by deception were dismissed.

Gidley-Baird has pleaded guilty to defrauding several struggling landowners. Istock.

Gidley-Baird’s guilty pleas related to around $1.6 million in fraud against numerous landowners across rural NSW, including Denman, Muswellbrook and Wagga Wagga.

Court document revealed the offences dated back to 2007 until 2019, where he registered numerous businesses and opened several bank accounts in an orchestrated scam.

Police facts stated he repeatedly lied to victims, requesting loans and investment money, telling them it would be used for business purposes and investment, and that those businesses were doing well when in fact they were in debt.

He also made fraudulent cheques in an attempt to corroborate his lies.

Gidley-Baird pleaded guilty to five charges at Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday. (AAP Image/Mark Russell)

Instead court documents stated funds were spent on gambling, atm withdrawals and personal expenditure.

Strike Force Nannine began investigating the frauds when a man attended Muswellbrook police station in October, 2019, to report allegations he had been duped out of more than $100,000.

Following that was a two-year investigation by Hunter Valley Police, including the help of a specialist forensic accountant, before he was contacted by police in March, 2020, about the allegations.

Police facts said Gidley-Baird also tried to influence a number of victims and witnesses during the investigation by telling them not to provide police with specific information about his fraudulent activity as it would put him in jail, and that he promised to pay them back.

Although the former Muswellbrook resident had already moved to Torquay in Victoria, he was arrested at a residence in Adamstown on December 14 in 2021.

Gidley-Baird will be sentenced in Newcastle’s District Court in late March.