John Buff fronts court over alleged personal use of clients’ money

A Melbourne accountant allegedly pocketed $7.6m in tax payments over nearly three years from a corporate giant that ran businesses such as the York on Lilydale.

Melbourne accountant John Buff is on trial, accused of pocketing more than $7.6m rather than pay the ATO for GST and other payments owed by businesses he provided accounting services to.

A trusted accountant allegedly pocketed $7.6m in tax payments for a Melbourne-based corporate giant over a number of years after forging a friendship with its chief executive.

John Buff, 68, has been slapped with seven charges of obtaining property by deception and a further four of obtaining a financial advantage by deception from the O’Hare Group, between February 2009 and August 2013.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and a four-week trial began in the County Court on Tuesday.

The court heard that Mr Buff was a trusted friend of the O’Hare Group chief executive Kerry O’Hare after meeting him at a seminar in 1983 and provided accounting advice to various companies under the group such as the York Hotels Victoria which traded as Vaucluse Hotel, OHG Holdings, Makesafe Security Solutions, Makesafe Traffic Management and Western Port Investment.

Melbourne accountant John Buff outside the County Court where he's been tried on charges of obtaining property and financial advantage by deception.

He became the group’s accountant in 2001 and around 2002, Mr Buff allegedly asked the O’Hare Group’s Andrew and David O’Hare to make out cheques to his company MBR Group rather than to the Australian Taxation Office.

“The O’Hares trusted the accused and did not consider his request to be suspicious. David never received any notification from the ATO to suggest the tax obligations were unmet,” prosecutor Scott Davison said.

He said that between February 2009 and August 2013, Mr Buff was given 122 cheques and 45 electronic funds transfers from the group’s different business entities for GST and other tax payments.

He allegedly paid the ATO $606,646 and used $7.6m for other purposes.

Mr Buff also provided accounting services to David and Nicole O’Hare Propriety Ltd which ran the Little Hair Room in Ringwood East and Lilydale and Hair Techniques in Scoresby. Those businesses were not part of the O’Hare Group.

York on Lilydale was one of the businesses the O’Hare Group ran and John Buff provided accounting advice for.

Between August 2010 and November 2012, David O’Hare wrote eight cheques totalling $17,854 that were allegedly deposited into Mr Buff’s account to be paid to the ATO. Mr Buff allegedly made no payments.

The jury were told at length about the friendship between Mr Buff and Mr Kerry O’Hare and the type of accounting services the former provided to the group.

In 1994, Mr Davison said Mr Buff helped Mr Kerry O’Hare with a pay dispute which solidified their friendship and both attended social events as friends.

He also helped Mr Kerry O’Hare and his wife Glenys negotiate the purchase of the York on Lilydale Resort and provided advice about a greatly reduced tax liability. Mr Buff became the group’s accountant

Apart from being an accountant, Mr Buff was also the director of a number of companies that dealt with fencing, shed building, swimming pool and equine, and had investments in various hotels and motels in Victoria and South Australia.