EFL legend Peter ’Frosty’ Baird jailed after double life as serial swindler exposed
A former Eastern Football League club president has been exposed as a lying swindler whose bogus cheque racket included “cruel” conduct committed against the mother of his two children.
Outer East
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An Eastern Football League legend who lived a double-life as a cheque-bouncing serial swindler has been jailed.
Peter ‘Frosty’ Baird, 47, was sentenced in the County Court on May 26 to a minimum 30-months’ jail after pleading guilty to 18 fraud-related charges.
Baird, from Berwick, ran a Catch Me if You Can-style bogus cheque racket which left a trail of victims, including the mother of his two children.
The fraudster threw around valueless cheques “like they were going out of style” to purchase cars, pay bills and rent and even lay down a deposit for a house.
Unwitting players webbed into Baird’s lengthy deceit between 2013 and 2014 included the EFL, and his dad, the court heard.
Baird repaid the EFL $692 with a bogus cheque after he lost a camera while he worked for the league’s media team.
In February 2014, Baird bounced three cheques to cover the $94,000 deposit on a $960,000 Lysterfield South property.
Baird, a former Rowville Football Club president, left his former partner with a $58,000 debt after he ducked on an agreement to cover bills in lieu of child support.
Instead, Baird “intercepted” the woman’s mail to make it appear he had paid the bills, the court was told.
She only found out not everything was right when contacted by debt collectors.
Baird attempted to clear the debt with a series of valueless $67,000 cheques.
The court heard Baird also paid another former partner’s interstate relocation costs – with a bogus cheque.
The fraudster stepped it up a notch when he opened 10 accounts – two in his dad’s name – with Bankwest Online between July and December, 2014.
Baird then ripped off $82,000 by depositing cheques into these accounts in person then immediately withdrawing cash before the cheques could bounce.
The court was told Baird was interviewed by police in November 2015, then again in November 2017 when he admitted his crimes.
The matter was delayed after Baird pleaded not guilty on the day of a 2018 plea hearing where it was expected he would plead guilty.
He committed subsequent deceptions in 2019 while on bail for this offending, the court heard.
The defence submitted Baird suffered low-self esteem by creating an “illusion of being a successful or wealthy man”.
Judge Michael Tinney said Baird committed “brazen and calculated offending”.
“Who doesn’t like a shiny new car and no doubt part of your armoury when confronted would be to say that you made an honest error with the cheque account balance,” Judge Tinney said.
“There is that aspect of big-noting yourself, and that you were swanning around ‘buying’ an expensive property.”
Judge Tinney said Baird’s offending against the mother of his children was “pretty cruel”, and he pleaded guilty because he had “simply ran out of options”.
“I do not know why you are as dishonest as you are but you just are,” Judge Tinney said.
“You were prepared to do or say pretty much anything … to dishonestly obtain an advantage.”
Baird, who played senior football with Knox and Koo Wee Rup, and held an assistant coaching role at Surrey Park while offending, was jailed for a maximum three years and nine months.
The court heard Baird was sacked from his Port Phillip Prison officer job in the 2000s after he was convicted and placed on a community correction order.
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