Noel Dona sentenced for fraud offences at Trinity Real Estate Harris Park

A failed property development venture led a real estate agent to fleece strata clients across Sydney and the Central Coast by almost $300,000 as he scrambled to recover debts. Now the fraudster has learned his fate.

Noel Dona was sentenced at Parramatta Local Court.

A soccer club president and former Harris Park real estate agent who swindled $292,000 off strata corporations after a failed property development venture has narrowly avoided full-time imprisonment.

Granville Waratah Soccer Football Club president Noel Dona pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception between October 2017 and April 2018 when he withdrew funds from strata owners’ corporations at Marayong, Harris Park, Mays Hill, Guildford, Dundas and The Entrance.

He fleeced strata groups out of the hefty sum by illegally writing cheques from them while he managed properties from his agency, Trinity.

At the time Dona was the sole authorised signatory to each of the strata groups’ trust accounts.

Court documents show how he wrote unauthorised cheques to multiple accounts including his own, Option Development Lands Fund, Tovaform and Urban Property Service without the owners’ corporations permission.

Noel Dona turned to fraud to repay mounting debts.

Along with being the sole director of Trinity, Dona and others had aspired to be property developers.

When the project later unravelled, the responsibility fell on the 57-year-old grandfather.

Dona’s lawyer Michael Ainsworth told the court his client turned to repaying mounting debts by taking funds from strata groups because he was going through a crisis.

The court heard Dona ultimately had to sell his house and investment properties to pay back creditors as part of the “unfortunate spiral of debt”.

The former Sydney Kings mascot has only repaid strata groups $45,000 – leaving $247,000 outstanding.

He was initially hit with 11 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception in a case the Fair Trading Department prosecuted.

But it was dropped to one count on September 20 when he pleaded guilty.

Mr Ainsworth said the North Parramatta man’s references spoke “very, very highly of him’’ particularly in his role with the soccer club where he engages with the “fabric of suburban society”.

“He’s a family man,’’ Mr Ainsworth said.

“He has children and grandchildren. He’s remorseful and contrite.’’

Magistrate Kate Thompson told the court Dona’s methods, such as taking funds for payments under the guise of repairing garage doors and painting, were unsophisticated but said a lot of money was involved.

“The quantity itself is a significant amount of money,’’ she said.

“You breached that trust to a significant degree.’’

Ms Thompson convicted Dona and sentenced him to a 20-month intensive correction order and 150 hours of community service.

He must also compensate the Property Services Compensation Fund $100,000 and pay professional costs of $15,575 to the prosecution authority.

He is allowed to serve the sentence in the community.