Former council candidate and roundabout fan Des Fong pleads guilty to stealing almost $400,000

ONE time roundabout fancier and former Darwin council candidate Des Fong has formally admitted to stealing almost $400,000

Darwin accountant Des Fong arrives at the Darwin Local Court in January before being committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court

ONE time roundabout fancier and former Darwin City Council candidate Des Fong has formally admitted to stealing almost $400,000.

Fong pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court on Friday to stealing $399,657.80 of “things in action” – a legal term used to describe money owed to someone else – from L2S Engineering Pty Ltd.

The Darwin Local Court has previously heard Fong had been hired to act as an “intermediary” in a business deal but kept much of the proceeds from it to cover “his own personal expenses”.

During the brief hearing on Friday, Fong’s lawyer, John Lawrence, asked for his client’s bail to be extended until his sentencing so he could “tidy up his extensive business interests”.

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Justice Stephen Southwood agreed to the request but added the conditions that Fong surrender his passport and not come within 200m of an international airport.

After being charged with the white-collar theft, Fong again appeared in the Darwin Local Court in June where he pleaded guilty to four counts relating to the failure to hand over financial documents to liquidators.

Fong was fined $4000 and only avoided spending three months in jail after complying with a court order to produce the documents.

At the time, Judge Elisabeth Armitage said the charges represented the accountant’s continued failure to comply with his professional obligations.

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Fong is best known for fronting a “commonsense” 2016 campaign to save the Daly St roundabout, which Darwin council had planned to bulldoze and replace with traffic lights.

He also stood as a candidate at the 2017 Darwin local government election, attracting 622 first preference votes.

During the campaign he told the NT News he would bring “integrity and trust” to the council and use his financial expertise to ensure ratepayers got “value for money”.

Fong will return to court for sentencing next month.