Fraudster Samuel Tessa loses Supreme Court appeal against conviction and sentence
An Elwood conman who scammed small business owners out of $100k has attempted to blame everyone but himself for a court’s decision to throw him in the slammer.
South East
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A fraudster who scammed unwitting small business owners out of nearly $100,000 has failed in a Supreme Court appeal where he alleged widespread corruption and judicial bias.
Elwood man Samuel Tessa was sentenced to two years and 10 months behind bars last year after a jury found the fraudster guilty of five counts of obtaining property by deception and two counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
From 2011 to 2017, Tessa pretended to be an insurance broker and duped Dandenong panel beating and automotive businesses out of $94,451.70.
An investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) revealed he never held an Australian financial services licence to conduct insurance-related business.
The ASIC investigation led to his arrest in December 2017.
A court previously heard Tessa had applied for the licence twice but his applications were rejected because they lacked the necessary details.
His business was also not appropriately authorised, which meant his victims did not hold genuine insurance coverage despite having paid premiums.
Tessa was self-represented when he ran his Supreme Court appeal.
He told the court the charges against him were wrong and the trial was unfair.
As part of his appeal, Tessa attempted to pin blame on a range of allegations, including claims of ASIC corruption, jury tampering and judicial bias.
None of the allegations were upheld in court.
At one point, Tessa claimed ASIC was “allowing fraud”.
“ … they’re pointing fingers at a small business accusing them of doing wrong, when they are doing wrong themselves internally and then covering everything up,” he said.
In their judgment, Justices Christopher Boyce, Rowena Orr and Michael Forrest dismissed Tessa’s claims of ASIC corruption.
The Supreme Court justices told the court the case against Tessa was “overwhelming” and his “conviction was inevitable”.
The court heard Tessa’s offending was serious and he bore a high degree of responsibility.
“He was the architect and sole operator of a fake insurance scheme, and personally received and benefited from the money obtained as a result of the offending,” the justices wrote in their decision.
“The offending did not consist of a single transaction, or transactions covering a relatively short period of time.
“The charges spanned six years.”
The court heard Tessa visited the duped businesses at least twice a year and collected payments.
He also provided documents to the businesses to create “an appearance of authenticity”.
In the judgment, the justices described Tessa’s scheme as “crude, yet sophisticated.”
The court allowed Tessa’s appeal against his conviction to be heard, however, the appeal was dismissed.
The court refused to hear his appeal against his sentence.
