Scoundrel Frankston accountant Michael Carley jailed after pleading guilty to theft fraud charges
A Frankston accountant has been exposed as a scoundrel fraud who swindled more than $400,000 from a deceased client.
South East
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A scoundrel Frankston accountant who claimed he stole more than $400,000 from a deceased client because the beneficiaries didn’t need the cash has been jailed.
Michael Carley, 68, was sentenced in the County Court on Monday to a minimum two years’ and six months’ jail after pleading guilty to theft and false accounting charges.
Carley was made an executor and power of attorney for his former client Kenneth Butler who died in 2003.
The court heard Carley formed his own practice Carley Advisory then began draining Mr Butler’s estate in 2010.
Carley fleeced $403,685.89 via multiple bogus transactions between July 2010 and July 2018.
The fraudster falsified accountancy records to mask his skulduggery.
Solicitors managing Mr Butler’s estate received an email tip-off in September 2018 that Carley had been “misappropriating funds” from his deceased client.
Carley, who was “initially evasive”, suggested to the solicitors the tip-off came from a “disgruntled employee” who was attempting to “cause him” problems.
However, Carley admitted to the solicitors that he “may have” overcharged accounting fees from “time to time”.
Carley also admitted using Mr Butler’s estate funds for his “own personal use” and he transferred dough to his personal account because he “needed funds in his business”.
Carley, who apologised for taking the money, claimed he had not done the “wrong thing” because he intended to repay the funds.
But Carley also admitted he stolen money for his “own benefit”.
Carley claimed he had been paying money back and owed $50,000 but the prosecution summary states no money has been paid back.
Carley told the solicitors he took the money because none of the estate’s beneficiaries “needed the money at present” and the money was “easily available to him”.
Police arrested and interviewed Carley in May 2019.
The fraudster admitted using the money “at a point in time” when he was “struggling with his own business”.
The court held Carley was previously a well respected contributor to the community known in many circles including local schools.
Judge Michael McInerney said the “very serious” offending was a “grave breach of trust”
Carley, who had spent no time on remand, was jailed for a maximum three years and eight months.
