Gold Coast fraudster Dr Roger Munro loses appeal against convictions over trading scheme

A Queensland Court has ruled on an appeal by a Gold Coast businessman who was jailed for defrauding investors. Read the finding.

A Queensland Court has dismissed an appeal by Gold Coast man Dr Roger Munro against his conviction on three counts of fraud.

Dr Munro was sentenced to four and a half years jail, with a non-parole period of 15 months, after pleading guilty to the fraud charges in May 2022.

He was released in August last year.

Dr Munro appealed in May 2022 and the matter was heard in October 2023.

The Court of Appeal found on Tuesday that no substantial miscarriage of justice occurred when the primary judge refused to allow Dr Munro to withdraw his guilty pleas in April 2022.

Dr Roger Munro at Brisbane Supreme Court in 2022. Pics Tara Croser.

A statement from corporate regulator ASIC said Dr Munro received $299,600 from three investors after he had invited them to invest in his trading scheme, TradeStation Futures Trading Fund between March 2013 and April 2014.

“Rather than investing those funds in TradeStation, as he had represented to the investors, Dr Munro dishonestly applied the funds to pay for personal expenses, make cash withdrawals, make payments to other investors and transferred funds into a trading account held in the name of Dr Munro’s wife,” ASIC said.

The regulator successfully sought to have Dr Munro banned from providing financial services in 2016 after it found he had raised more than $1.5 million from investors since 2011 without a licence.