Joseph Kizana fronts court over bank loan fraud

A dodgy father and son have followed each other to jail withina week after investigators uncovered nearly $9m in bank loans they separately obtained using fraudulent documents.

Former Melbourne businessman Joseph Kizana has been sent to jail for conning banks and obtaining $6.4m in loans by submitting false information.

A former Melbourne businessman has followed his son to prison for rorting banks of $6.4m in fraudulent loan applications over a number of years.

Joseph Kizana, 54, of Keilor East, pleaded guilty in the County Court to a charge of using a document to prejudice others and was jailed on Tuesday for six months and a two-year community corrections order.

His son Michael Kizana of Gladstone Park was last week sentenced to a similar prison term and community corrections order for pocketing $2.5m in loans by submitting false documents in 11 loan applications.

The court heard on Tuesday that Joseph Kizana submitted false information in 11 loan applications between June 2019 and August 2022 to refinance his houses in Melbourne’s north west, Geelong and Ballarat, purchasing properties and to buy land.

Kizana, who buys properties to renovate and re-sell, falsified his earnings as owner of North Side Pizza at Hadfield and submitted false tax returns as part of his loan applications.

Joseph Kizana has followed his son to prison for defrauding banks through false loan documents.

In one application, he indicated that the loan was to plan for retirement when it was for refinancing of a house at Gladstone Park.

His accountant of 25 years confirmed in a statement to police that the tax returns Kizana submitted as part of the loan applications were not completed by him and were false documents.

Another accountant confirmed Kizana had never been his client and that the financial statements and accountant’s letter with his name and signature as part of the loan allocations were not completed by him.

“While I accept the false documents were submitted so as to enable you to obtain loans for properties which you later sold, the reality is your offending was systematic, protracted and in some instances, increasingly more serious by virtue of the various documents filed in support of the loan applications,” Judge Angela Ellis said.

“Your offending was brazen. It undermined the integrity of lending institutions and transactions which is part of a system which relies on honesty”

Aside from his offending, Judge Ellis said Kizana was a much-loved father and husband with a lack of priors, a long history of hard work and excellent prospects of rehabilitation.