Jarrad Garth accused of swindling nearly $200k from pensioner: court
Jurors have delivered their verdict in the case of a landscaper accused of fleecing a pensioner friend of nearly $200k.
South East
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Trial day six: Friday, March 7, 2025
Jurors have found a former Mornington Peninsula landscaper guilty of swindling a pensioner of nearly $200,000 after less than a day of deliberations.
They retired at 12.35pm on Thursday from the County Court to consider their verdict in the case of Jarrad Garth who was accused of scamming Suzanne Reeves in 2020.
The jury suspended their deliberation at 4pm on Thursday, returned on Friday morning and delivered the verdict at 11.25am.
Garth is on bail and will return to court for a plea hearing on May 12.
Trial day five: Thursday, March 6, 2025
The jury has gone out in the trial of former Mornington Peninsula landscaper who allegedly fleeced a pensioner of nearly $200,000.
Jurors at County Court retired at 12.35pm on Thursday to consider their verdict in the case of Jarrad Garth who’s accused of scamming his friend Suzanne Reeves in 2020.
In her summing up, Judge Angela Ellis directed them to consider all the evidence and to treat Mr Garth’s testimony the same as that of other witnesses.
Although they must follow all directions she gave on the law, she said the jurors were the sole judges of facts and what weight they should give to evidence.
Judge Ellis said the jury’s verdict must be unanimous.
The jurors retired for the day at 4pm and will return to court on Friday morning to resume their deliberation.
Trial day four: Wednesday, March 5, 2025
An out-of-work landscaper immediately withdrew money a pensioner lent him throughout 2020 and spent it on gambling without any intention of repaying the money, a jury has been told.
Former Mornington Peninsula landscaper Jarrad Garth is on trial accused of fleecing Suzanne Reeves of nearly $200,000 throughout 2020.
In his closing address to the jury on Wednesday, prosecutor Gregory Buchhorn said Mr Garth made false representations to Ms Reeves in order to obtain money for things such as landscaping when he was out of work during the Covid lockdown.
With his only source of income being unemployment benefit, he said Mr Garth asked her for money to fuel his gambling addiction which he spent large sums of money on.
Mr Buchhorn said the jury could accept Ms Reeves and her children Patrick Reeves and Amy Kitch as credible witnesses while Mr Garth’s evidence did not accord with commonsense.
While the pensioner and Mr Garth were friends, drank together and checked upon each other, the prosecutor said the landscaper was not the only person she entirely relied upon.
Mr Buchhorn said the request for money always came from Mr Garth and that his conversation with Mr Reeves was mostly about money.
“She was pretty straight forward with her answers, she was direct, there was no exaggeration or embellishment. Her account was frank,” he told the jury, referring to Mr Reeves’ statement to police before she died.
Defence lawyer Steven Anger said there was no dishonesty as Mr Garth sent Ms Reeves text messages throughout 2020 on the amounts he owed her with an undertaking that he’d pay her when he was able to.
“Mrs Reeves knew this man for several years, she knew he was unemployed, that he was a drinker and she gave him money for living expenses. It’s not prudent conduct but people have every right to spend their money as they wish,” he said.
Mr Anger said while Mr Garth was unemployed in 2020, Mrs Reeves knew that he had a successful landscaping business which in the longer term he could turn it around and pay her back.
“There’s no dishonesty, no deception and Mr Garth had no intention to permanently deprive her of her money. There’s evidence money was given for him to get work.”
Mr Anger said Mrs Reeves didn’t tell her children that she gave money to Mr Garth
‘You can infer from her evidence that she’s embarrassed by her silly conduct and wishes to minimise and hide it from her family. This is silly behaviour and a waste of money.
“She doesn’t want to look stupid, doesn’t wanna look drunk. She has to put the blame elsewhere,” Mr Anger said.
The jury is expected to go out on Thursday.
Trial day three: Monday, March 3, 2025
A landscaper accused of conning nearly $200,000 from a pensioner has told a court he intended to pay back the woman he called a friend.
Electing to give evidence in his County Court trial on Monday, Jarrad Garth said Suzanne Reeves treated him like her adopted son and lent him money at a time when his marriage broke down, his landscaping business collapsed, he went on an unemployment benefit, was drinking excessively and gambling, and lived in his truck.
Mr Garth said he was introduced to Ms Reeves by her son Patrick who was his “drinking buddy” at The Heritage Balnarring.
He used to go to her Balnarring house at least four times a week and the two would sometimes drink all day, watch CSI and Family feud and dance to music.
“We were both loners. I distanced myself from friends after my marriage broke down and I became a bit of a recluse. She was lonely and by herself most of the time,” he said.
Mr Garth said he did landscaping and built a fish pond on her property and she paid him about $12,000 plus another $8000 to help him with accommodation and other necessities.
He said Ms Reeves wrote down money she lent him and would call and request that he send confirmation via text messages of what he owed her — which he told the court was $142,000.
“That’s the amount I owed her. She said ‘I don’t care if it takes you 10 years to pay it off. You’re like a son to me’. My intention was to pay the money back,” he told the jury.
During the first Covid lockdown in early 2020, Mr Garth said Ms Reeves asked him to move in with her after learning he didn’t have a place to live but he decided against it.
She then paid a month’s rent and bond for a cottage in Moorooduc he moved in, he said, as well as funded repairs to his old truck and the purchase of tyres.
Mr Garth said she gave him money despite knowing he was gambling and was not working.
Trial day two: Friday, February 28, 2025
A daughter has told a jury of her mother’s distress at an alleged scam that left with just a few hundred dollars to her name.
Amy Kitch gave evidence in the County Court on Friday against former Mornington Peninsula landscaper Jarrad Garth, accused of obtaining $198,670 from Suzanne Reeves by deception.
Ms Kitch said after an aunt told her about her mum’s difficult financial situation in 2022, she discovered a bank statement that showed Ms Reeves had less than “a couple of hundred dollars left”.
She said her mum then told her she had lent large sums of money to Mr Garth, both in cash and bank deposits, as well as sending money to him through a taxi driver.
“She was agitated, quite distressed, confused and quite emotional,” Ms Kitch told the court.
The family was then forced to put Ms Reeves’ home on the market, she said, and move her into the Western Port Gardens Retirement Village in Bittern.
“She had to move from Balnarring as she had no money, her super and term deposits were gone, her credit card maxed out so we had to sell and move her into something smaller.”
Ms Kitch said her mum told her that Mr Garth had paid back a small amount but didn’t specify how much.
The court heard, prior to giving money to Mr Garth and before she retired, Ms Reeves had always been financially-independent and worked as a bookkeeper and other jobs.
Trial day one: Thursday, February 27, 2025
A former Mornington Peninsula landscaper allegedly fleeced a 69-year-old woman he befriended of nearly $200,000 to fuel his gambling and betting habit, a court has heard.
Jarrad Garth, 42, is on trial in the County Court after pleading not guilty to a charge of obtaining $198,670 by deception.
Prosecutor Gregory Buchhorn told the jury on Thursday that $343,680 was deposited in the 69-year-old pensioner’s bank account in early 2020 after she sold her Balnarring home and moved to Bittern.
Between February and December 2020, he said Mr Garth contacted her daily or every second day and even visited her to ask for money for various reasons such as buying fuel, food and landscaping material, pay rent, and for legal fees.
Mr Garth met the woman and forged a friendship about 2018, completing landscaping work for her.
In a police statement before she died in 2022, that was read out in court, the woman said she would lend Mr Garth thousands of dollars at a time, either in cash or bank deposits, for various reasons such as to fix his truck, to buy landscaping materials, to pay his rent and legal fees.
“I think I was lonely. Initially I felt sorry for him and I was happy to loan him some money to help him but this just got out of control,” she told police.
The woman said she lost count how much money she lent him. “It got to the stage where Jarrad would tell me that I had to lend him money so he could work and that if I didn’t lend him more money, he would not be able to pay me back the money he owed me.
“My National Australia Bank account went from a balance of $340,000 in February 2020 to $39.98 on the 26th of February, 2021. Without Jarrad Garth taking my money, I’d still be well off.”
Her daughter went to police after checking her mother’s bank balance in February 2021.
Mr Buchhorn said Mr Garth received an unemployment benefit and his bank statement showed he withdrew money and used it on gambling and betting in 2020.
However, defence lawyer Steven Anger told the jury there was no deception or dishonesty and the woman had regarded Mr Garth as her “adopted son” due to their close friendship.
He said evidence showed the woman gifted, as well as loaned, money to Mr Garth who had agreed, in writing, to repay the money when he was able.
Mornington Peninsula Criminal Investigation Unit police tracked Mr Garth to a Coffs Harbour address in early 2022.
