Former Surf Life Saving boss Matthew Hanks jailed for defrauding charity

One-time high-flying Surf Life Saving NSW general manager Matthew Hanks has been sentenced to prison for defrauding the charity out of almost $2 million.

Disgraced former Surf Life Saving NSW boss Matthew Hanks will spend his first night behind bars after being jailed on Friday for cheating the charity out of almost $2 million.

The one-time high-flying general manager who lived a millionaire’s lifestyle has lost his wife and his younger partner as well as the two mansions he bought with the money he defrauded along with a yacht.

On Friday he lost his liberty, sentenced in the District Court to a maximum of three years and three months with a non-parole period of one year and seven months.

The court heard he had no previous convictions and had never been in jail before.

Former Surf Life Saving NSW boss Matthew Hanks has been sentenced to jail. Picture: Madeline Crittenden

Judge John Picking said that some aspects of the fraud had been “too easy” because of the slack management oversight and because Hanks, 52, was trusted by the upper echelons of the non-profit organisation.

He accepted that Hanks was a “broken man” with no friends, no prospect of employment who suffered from depression and PTSD and had described himself as “immature and arrogant”.

“It would be easy to say he deserves what comes to him because of his behaviour,” the judge said.

“That might be true but in saying that, there are people who do not suffer what he has suffered in addition to what sentence I impose on him.”

But the judge said the sentence had to be a general deterrent to white collar criminals.

“Management has to behave in an ethical manner and if they do not, there should be deterrents,” Judge Pickering said.

“While it appears that (Hanks) was not universally liked at Surf Life Saving, he was trusted by the higher echelons … and that trust allowed him to take on (this) behaviour.”

The double-crossing began after Hanks was promoted from human resources manager to general manager in 2007.

Hanks admitted defrauding the organisation of $400,000 by invoicing the SLS NSW printing work to his own company, See Hear Speak, but subcontracting it out to cheaper operators, pocketing the difference.

Judge Pickering said Hanks had believed initially he was helping the organisation but has described some of his excuses as “incredulous”.

Hanks had done deals with local car businesses to charge phantom dealer delivery fees on the charity’s vehicles, siphoning a total of $1,318,00 into his ­personal fund.

But the judge said the morally worst fraud was when he “brazenly” pocketed the $121,000 government grant meant for a surf club by altering the cheque and rejected Hanks’ claim he meant to repay it.

“Sadly that seems to be pure greed,” the judge said.

Matthew Hanks has been jailed for a non-parole period of one year and seven months.

That fraud was not discovered until SLS became suspicious and started to investigate the scams leading to Hanks resigning in 2016.

He almost immediately repaid $168,000 and then another $1.05 million after a civil judgment.

The car dealership Tom Kerr Auto also settled with SLS NSW in a confidential out-of-court settlement, Judge Pickering said.

The maximum sentence he could have received was 55 years behind bars.

Surf Life Saving NSW said the conclusion of the court case was a welcome relief for the organisation and its 75,000 volunteers.

“We are extremely glad this is finally over,” Surf Life Saving NSW president George Shales OAM said.

“Our volunteers, partners and the community deserve to have their trust fully restored in our iconic movement which has been negatively impacted by the selfish actions of one former employee who abused his position within the organisation.”