Mildura man Scott Hines sent to prison for stealing from client

A Mildura financial officer who had “full control” of his victim’s bank accounts, using her money to buy KFC, has been sentenced in court.

A former financial advisor who admitted to stealing more than $363,000 from a client will spend several years behind bars.

Scott Hines, 41, appeared in the County Court for sentencing on Wednesday, after pleading guilty to three charges of obtaining a financial advantage by deception late last year.

Hines had been working as a financial advisor at the Mildura ANZ bank branch when he first met the victim, who the court heard was a vulnerable single mother of four children, including one who lives with a disability, and formulated financial plans for her in 2010.

The court heard Hines had gradually obtained “full control” of the victim’s finances and assets.

Hines’ offending, which spanned from 2011 until 2018, included withdrawing money from the victim’s bank accounts and using her debit card to pay for his own expenses.

The money stolen amounted to more than $363,000.

The first charge relates to Hines withdrawing $100,000 from one of the victim’s bank accounts in July 2011 to purchase a bank cheque at Swan Hill.

In October that year he withdrew a further $230,000 from her account.

The offending continued after his contract with the bank was terminated in March 2012 due to an unrelated breach.

The court heard he told the victim he was closing all her ANZ bank accounts and would open new accounts with a different bank as he no longer worked for ANZ and intended to pursue his own financial planning business.

“He told her not to speak to anyone from ANZ if they contacted her or tell them he had spoken to her,” the prosecutor said.

So from mid-2012 until mid-2018 Hines had “full control” of the victim’s incoming mail and all of her bank accounts.

Using the debit card of the account he said he had closed but did not, he paid for thousands of dollars worth of his own expenses between 2012 and 2018.

The court was told he started out by making small purchases, such as meals from KFC, to purchases at Bunnings and paying his energy bills and council rates.

He also forged her signature to withdraw $30,000 from her account.

A police investigation began when the victim filed a report in August 2018.

The investigation, carried out by Victoria Police’s Fraud and Extortion Squad, was lengthy and culminated in a search warrant being executed at Hines’ Mildura address in February 2020.

Documents were seized as a result of this search warrant but the prosecutor told the court he declined to be interviewed.

The court heard Hines, who had also made himself the executor of the victim’s will, had accrued other financial benefits that were not included in the charges brought before the court.

A victim impact statement was tendered in evidence and described the impacts and how the fraud had made her emotionally fragile.

Hines’ lawyer last week told the court his client had no prior convictions, had pleaded guilty to the offending at an early stage and so was remorseful.

He also conceded the offending was “serious” and his client had accepted the “objective gravity of his offending and that the court will have no option but to sentence him to a term of imprisonment”.

He said his client, who had wanted to be a pilot but did not receive the marks in school, had been working as a landscape gardener since the investigation launched in 2018.

By way of some kind of explanation for the offending, he said Hines had a history of gambling which he described as “high end, high risk speculative investment in foreign exchange trading”.

The court heard none of the money had been repaid and it was not known where it was.

On Wednesday, Judge Wraight said the offending was planned and persisted for seven years.

“She was a vulnerable person with limited financial knowledge and trusted you with her investments. You took advantage of that, while she was focused on caring for her severely disabled daughter.”

Hines was sentenced to a period of three years and five months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years.