Bondi boomer couple convicted of $6m fraud

A Sydney couple in their 60s have been sentenced to jail after they were found guilty of defrauding millions destined for charity and spending it on flash homes.

The wife of a disgraced lawyer from Sydney’s ritzy eastern suburbs almost collapsed in court today as her husband was sentenced to at least six years in prison for masterminding the theft of more than $6 million from the estates of elderly women, most of which had been intended for charities.

Therese O’Brien, 63, had to be helped to her seat and said “won’t someone look after him,” as her husband was led away in handcuffs.

The boomer couple spent the ill-gotten gains on luxury homes and furniture – and to top up their self managed superannuation fund.

Also a part of the multimillion-dollar plot, Therese O’Brien was sentenced to three years imprisonment but will be able to serve that as an intensive correction order including 500 hours community service.

Mark Leo O’Brien, 64, wearing a black polo shirt and green trousers in the dock, gave his wife a weak smile and final kiss on the lips before he was taken down for 10 years with a non parole period of six years.

Sentencing at Sydney’s Downing Centre courts today, Judge Robert Sutherland said the operation was a “carefully thought out subterfuge” that included moving moneys in and out of O’Brien’s law firm, between various bank accounts, mortgages and superannuation investments and the forging of several documents.

At the height of their crimes, the couple had traded up from a home worth more than $1 million in North Bondi, bordering the Pacific Ocean, to an even swankier house nearby. But it was this sudden upgrade to their living that was to be their downfall.

Therese O'Brien and her husband, Sydney lawyer Mark O'Brien, pleaded guilty to defrauding clients of more than $6 million. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA NewsWire

O’Brien was convicted on 10 charges including several involving dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime. His wife was convicted of two charges including dealing with the proceeds of crime.

The couple, who met at Sydney University in the 1970s, were born and bred in Sydney’s well-to-do eastern suburbs.

Mark O’Brien was a lawyer whose legal firm looked after the estates of a number of wealthy older people in the area.

In 2015, a client passed away whose will left more than $1 million to a number of medical organisations and charities.

However, O’Brien funnelled that cash into a new bank account he had opened with it going towards paying off two mortgages on the couple’s North Bondi property.

Smaller donations were made to the charities in the will. But when those charities sent the law firm letters of acknowledgment, O’Brien would use them to forge fake letters for the full amount set out in the will in case his legal firm was audited.

Justice Sutherland said that showed “a degree of planning and sophistication” – on O’Brien’s part – had gone into the fraud.

According to court documents, when O’Brien told his wife about his scheme she was “horrified” and during an argument told him to “put it back”.

However, Justice Sutherland noted that, “his refusal to put the money back, put her in a moral conundrum that ultimately led her to acquiescence”.

Some of the money went into the couple’s superannuation fund and on interest free loans to their children of several hundred thousand dollars each. There is no suggestion the children knew where that money had originated.

Therese O'Brien and Mark O'Brien arrive at the Downing Centre court in Sydney for an earlier hearing in December, 2020. Picture: Joel Carrett/NCA NewsWire

HOW DECEIT UNRAVELLED

The earlier theft went undiscovered. But in 2017, O’Brien spied a further opportunity with another of his wealthy elderly clients for who he had power of attorney over.

“With self-confidence buoyed by the earlier misappropriation not being discovered and the forged letters undetected despite an audit, O’Brien decided to try his hand at fraudulent misappropriation again,” said Justice Sutherland.

At first he transferred smaller amounts while the woman was still alive. However, when she died she left an estate worth more than $6 million.

Like his previous victim, she had bequeathed large amounts of her wealth to charities, including around $3m to St Vincent de Paul Society.

Instead that money went to the O’Briens who used it to buy and then renovate a $3.4m home in Bondi Junction.

Theresa O’Brien spent $50,000 of the cash to buy furniture and decorate the couple’s new pad.

In total, the O’Briens extracted $6.1m from the estates of the deceased victims.

However, the ruse was revealed in early 2019 when O’Brien’s business partner from the firm Harrington, Maguire and O’Brien became suspicious about how he could afford a $3m-plus four-bedroom, four-bathroom Bondi home.

Initially O’Brien said his wife had come into the cash. But his colleague brought in auditors to scrutinise the firm’s accounts and established that he was misappropriating funds through the company.

Although O’Brien originally said the fraud was to benefit the struggling law firm he later conceded it was also done to fund his retirement.

The judge noted that the O’Briens have since paid back all the funds they took which is something of a rarity as in similar cases most of the money is quickly spent.

However, the couple invested most of the cash instead. Through selling their property (which had increased in value), emptying their super fund and by their children repaying back the loans, the charities eventually received the cash they had been promised years ago.

Justice Sutherland said he accepted the couple’s “deep remorse and contrition” but that did not absolve them from “criminal complicity”.

O’Brien will be eligible for parole in March 2027.

Editor’s note: Readers should not confuse this Mark O’Brien with defamation lawyer Mark O’Brien of Mark O’Brien Legal.

– Additional reporting by Steve Zemek