Elders staffer Matthew Pullman tells NT Supreme Court he feared for his job after blowing the whistle to head office

THE junior real estate agency staffer who blew the whistle on alleged fraudster Chris Deutrom’s misappropriation of company money feared for his job and was told he didn’t understand ‘Aussie mateship’, the Supreme Court has heard

Former Elders sales support officer Matthew Pullman leaves the NT Supreme Court after giving evidence

THE junior real estate agency staffer who blew the whistle on alleged fraudster Chris Deutrom’s misappropriation of company money feared for his job and was told he didn’t understand “Aussie mateship”, the Supreme Court has heard.

Mr Deutrom, the former manager of Elders real estate agencies in Darwin, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of obtaining benefit by deception, charges stemming from his alleged misappropriation of advertising rebates.

Former Elders sales support officer Matthew Pullman told the third day of Mr Deutrom’s trial on Wednesday that a document sent to an email address “raised suspicions that something was not right”.

The document showed a $14,410 rebate had been directed to Deutrom Pty Ltd, a company which Mr Deutrom was the sole director and shareholder of, the court heard.

Mr Pullman said he contacted the Elders head office, who in turn told him to raise his concerns with Mr Deutrom.

Mr Pullman said he received a “couple of missed calls” from Mr Deutrom, who later told him the plan for the money was to fund a trip for high achieving agents to Bali.

He said Mr Deutrom later said to him, “I want to make sure you’ve got my back”.

He said he reassured Mr Deutrom because he “didn’t want to get him any more angry”.

Mr Pullman kept notes of three meetings between him and Mr Deutrom, saying he feared he might lose his job.

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“He was saying he would find out who had told head office and they would pay for what they had done,” he told the court.

He said Mr Deutrom was “aggressive, angry, a little bit startled, agitated would be the word”.

“There was a comment that I should just f--k off back to England,” Mr Pullman said.

He also told the court that Mr Deutrom said “that I don’t understand Aussie mateship.”

NT News general manager Greg Thomson testified that Mr Deutrom had called him to say he had “f----d up” and asked him to delete a supplier agreement from the newspaper’s payment systems which had been used to pay rebates owed to Elders into an account related to Mr Deutrom.

Under cross-examination, Mr Deutrom’s barrister Jon Tippett QC said the “conversation was not a request by Mr Deutrom to cover up anything”, a comment to which Crown Prosecutor David Morters SC objected.

Mr Thomson said the conversation was about rationalising two Elders supplier agreements into one.

He said he could not be certain precisely when the conversation took place.

Mr Morters closed the Crown case against Mr Deutrom on Wednesday afternoon after tendering extracts from Mr Deutrom’s bank statements through major fraud squad Detective Senior Constable Ivana Young.

The trial, before Justice Jenny Blokland and a jury, continues.