Goat breeders foiled attempt to have charges against them thrown out

Two brothers who allegedly conned an elderly Camberwell couple out of their retirement savings by convincing them to invest in their goat rearing business have tried to have charges against them thrown out in a court.

A pair of brothers involved in a goat rearing business have been charged with swindling an elderly couple out of their retirement savings. Picture: Andy Drewitt

Two brothers alleged to have fleeced an elderly couple by conning them into investing in their goat rearing business have failed to have the charges against them thrown out.

One of the brother’s lawyers sought leave at the Court of Appeal to review their County Court trial judge’s ruling in February not to quash the charges based on their clumsy wording.

The man’s lawyer contended the charges were “bad for patent” and suffered from “latent duplicity”, meaning one charge was listed for a single offence when more than one offence was alleged to have taken place.

According to court documents, the brothers ran a business between 2009 and 2010 that involved breeding, fattening and selling goats, with one brother responsible for the farm’s day-to-day management and the other in charge of sales and marketing.

They convinced a retired Camberwell couple to invest $395,000 to buy more than 26,000 goats, which the men allegedly told the couple they later planned to sell at a profit.

But the men allegedly failed to buy the goats, or bought only a small number, and allegedly used the retirees’ money for other purposes.

They also allegedly failed to tell the couple they owed more than $900,000 on their loan accounts, more than $800,000 to another person and had breached a joint-venture agreement with another company worth more than $1.7 million, according to the court documents.

Court of Appeal Justices Stephen Kaye and Karin Emerton noted this month the men denied misleading their alleged victims or concealing information from them.

But they ruled against the application for leave to appeal the County Court’s decision not to throw out the charges.

“The charges do not suffer from duplicity in the manner contended for by the applicant. That said, however, the drafting of the charges is less than ideal, and will create practical problems for the trial judge in charging a jury,” they said.

“But since the judge has recognised that the charges will require amendment, this Court’s intervention presently cannot be justified.”

The men are expected to face the allegations in a jury trial at a later date.

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