Joshua Dallas Wilson avoids jail for telling mates winner
A self-made millionaire has avoided jail but lost his reputation after telling his mates secret NRL information, a court has heard.
Police & Courts
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A young Sydney entrepreneur who played a role in the Dally M betting scandal has avoided prison but “lost his reputation, employment and more than $10 million”.
Joshua Dallas Wilson, 30, was sentenced in the District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to using inside information to enter a bet and communicating that information to others.
Wilson, the ex-boss of software company StatEdge contracted by the NRL to hold judges’ votes for the awards night, was told by an employee that Melbourne’s Craig Bellamy would win coach of the year.
The Paddington resident passed on the information to his mates at the pub over a beer on September 13, 2019.
They all placed bets, with Wilson spending $1000 on Sportsbet, winning $1975.
Wilson’s employee and StatEdge managing director Benjamin David Trevisiol is due to be sentenced on Friday on the same charges.
For the sake of a $975 win, Wilson estimates he has lost a fortune.
“It would be over $10 million. In shares that I had in my company, over $10 million,” Wilson said to reporters outside court when asked how much money he had lost.
“It’s not the smartest decision, no.
“I’m going to cop it on the chin. I’ve got to live with it. It’s something incredibly stupid.”
Wilson said he no longer has shares in StatEdge and super fund Grow Super.
Lawyer Chris Cole told the court his “hardworking” client, who has since resigned from StatEdge and as CEO of Grow Super, should not be convicted.
“He’s a man from humble beginnings. No trust fund. It’s only through his hard work and dedication he found himself in the successful role he was in at 29 years of age,” Mr Cole said.
“He’s already paid a price. The financial penalty, the reputation in his industry, his employment and he’s been painted with the brush of being a criminal.”
Prosecutor Amin Assad began his statement to the court by referencing millionaire Sydney stockbroker Rene Rivkin’s insider dealing case in 2013.
Rivkin was sentenced to jail every weekend for nine months for buying Qantas shares after a tip off from an airline chief.
“Inside information was shared and there was criminal conduct. A conviction should be recorded to deter others and the accused in the future,” Assad said.
In sentencing him to an 18-month good behaviour bond, Magistrate Michael Barko told the court Wilson should have known better.
“I am dealing with a well raised, highly educated, highly intelligent, worldly, sophisticated individual,” Mr Barko said.
“The head of a company entrusted to maintain the integrity of these kinds of awards nights ... to maintain the confidence of the NRL itself.
“I am not dealing with a junior clerk on minimum wages who happens upon a letter on someone’s desk.”
Mr Barko told the court this case has put the integrity of sports betting in NSW under a spotlight.
“The defendant’s conduct struck at that integrity,” Mr Barko said.
He told the court he took into account Wilson‘s “genuine remorse” and what he had lost from “his own stupidity or naivety or foolhardy recklessness”.
“I am in the view that a conviction should be recorded. If you make your bed, you lie in it.”
Wilson was charged following an investigation by the NRL Integrity Unit after betting companies raised red flags on suspicious wagers in the lead-up to the ceremony.
Bellamy had been at 7-1 odds to win the award before a late surge of money slashed his price to $1.80.