Former Logan mayor Luke Smith sentenced for corruption
A former Queensland mayor has learnt his fate in court years after he secretly accepted a boat from a developer while in public office.
Former Logan City mayor Luke Smith has avoided jail time after pleading guilty to corruption while he was in public office.
The former councillor, whose full name is Timothy Luke Smith, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court on Tuesday to one count each of secret commission, misconduct in relation to public office and the obligation of a councillor to make public their own interest.
The court was told Smith had received a boat in Woolgoolga from a party trying to influence his position in council between July 22, 2016, and September 10, 2016.
During his sentencing remarks on Thursday, Judge David Kent KC said Smith had championed a proposed project at Springwood for a 15-storey mixed commercial and short-term residential building.
The development, which was ultimately never approved by council, was run by SKL Cables.
The court was told some of the company’s directors had donated tens of thousands of dollars to Smith’s mayoral election campaign in 2016.
Judge Kent said Smith had spoken with the company’s directors on multiple occasions to discuss the zoning issues associated with the project, as council capped developments at 10 storeys.
In 2016, Smith had inquired about buying a powerboat worth $95,000 from SKL director Nathan Mai.
Mr Mai refused to sell it but allowed Smith to use it.
The court was told the boat was later transferred into Smith’s name and insured to him.
In August 2017, Smith sold the boat and was paid $39,000 minus brokerage fees.
The court was told Mr Mai had not requested this money be returned to him.
Smith also pleaded guilty to using his influence in council to favour the recruitment process between June 1, 2017 and July 1, 2017 to hire council director Jane Frawley.
Judge Kent said while Ms Frawley was hired after a unanimous decision by the hiring committee and did have the appropriate qualifications for the job, Smith had “improperly influenced the recruitment process” by sharing recruitment information with Ms Frawley.
Smith also intentionally failed to inform the council chief executive of a matter of interest within the 30 required days reporting period between August 29, 2016, and September 29, 2017.
Judge Kent said Smith’s sentence reflected “the degree of public trust which was betrayed” in his misconduct of office.
“Factually, you did not in fact do anything to assist the development application, which in any event did not proceed, and the use of the boat was conditioned that you allow friends of the developers to use it on an ad-hoc basis, and obviously the costs of repairs and maintenance were your responsibility,” he said.
Judge Kent sentenced Smith to 18 months imprisonment to be served as a two-year wholly suspended sentence for the secret commission offence.
“They were serious breaches of your responsibilities as an elected official,” Judge Kent said.
“Your character, while good in many respects, does not benefit you as much as in some other cases because it assisted in putting you in a position to be able to commit the offences.”
He also ordered Smith serve 120 community service hours for his misconduct during his time public office.
Smith was also convicted but not further punished for failing to report a matter of interest to council.
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