Stephen John Muller defends fraud charges

Contracts worth $4.6m over five years would be “reasonable incentive” to run an alleged protracted fraud scheme, the prosecutor told the jury in a fraud trial being summed up in Cairns District Court on Monday.   

Contracts worth $4.6m over five years would be “reasonable incentive” to run a protracted fraud scheme, a prosecutor has told the jury in a fraud trial being summed up in Cairns District Court on Monday.

Stephen John Muller, who ran Macro Energy, pleaded not guilty to three counts of fraud in Cairns District Court at the start of the trial.

Macro Energy subcontracted to Airfirst, a Cairns-based company which provided services to Telstra.

The directors of Airfirst were Graeme Clifford King, James Eli Reid and Beth Maree Borzi.

Mr Reid and Ms Borzi conducted an audit of the company’s finances and alerted police in early 2018 to irregularities they detected in paperwork from as early as 2013.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr Reid or Ms Borzi.

The trial previously heard King was convicted of fraud and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with a suspended sentence after 18 months.

Earlier in the trial, Crown prosecutor Amy Stannard showed the jury a chart outlining how Macro Energy sent quotes for work to King at Airfirst, and King would order Mr Muller to increase the amounts, and a new quote and eventually invoice would be issued.

The Crown alleges Mr Muller received the payment for invoices, transferring the difference between the actual invoice and the inflated amount to an account called Four Kings.

King then transferred money from Four Kings to his personal account.

Cairns Courthouse, where the fraud trial of Stephen John Muller is being held. Picture: Brendan Radke

Defence counsel for Mr Muller, Anthony Kimmins, asked the jury why a previously honest, hardworking and decent individual would embark on a dishonest scheme.

After playing recordings of telephone conversations last week, Mr Kimmins characterised Mr Muller as a man of “proven good character”.

He told the court it was impossible for Mr Muller to have known the fraud was taking place.

“The truly nauseating fact of what a person such as King says, is they can portray as convincing and believable a story which may only have five or 10 per cent truth in it because they are involved in the offending up to their necks,” he told jurors.

Mr Kimmins suggested to jurors they approach their assessment of his evidence with caution, as he had “shifted blame wholly or partly to others”.

“It would be dangerous to convict Steve Muller on the evidence of King,” he said.

Ms Stannard said Mr Muller’s alleged offending was “creative bookkeeping” and involved “$4.6m of inflated invoices”.

She said the alleged offences had not been a “Miss Congeality pageant”.

When Mr Muller was confronted with his fake invoices his response was he didn’t look at them, she told the court.

“He knew invoices were fake, which was why there was chatter on the phone and worry about police finding them,” Ms Stannard said.

“The defendant must have known what he was doing was dishonest well before this exploded.

She told the court the bank statements showed up in black and white, and now in “fluoro yellow and green in the amount of the fraud”.

“I submit to you that paper doesn’t lie, and it’s self-evident. I submit that Mr Muller knew what he was doing was dishonest.”

She told the court a man who can appear to be honest and trustworthy can be anything but.

“Mr King and Mr Muller, two peas in a pod really,” she said.

Chief Judge Brian Devereaux SC was due to sum up on Monday afternoon before the jury retires to consider a verdict.

Originally published as Stephen John Muller defends fraud charges