Second man jailed over Royal Darwin Hospital maintenance scam

ROYAL Darwin Hospital conman Walter Wilton will join his co-offender John Zvimba for a stint behind bars despite a ‘belated’ attempt to make good some of the money he rorted from the public purse.

Walter Wilton was today jailed for three years and six months. Picture: Justin Kennedy

ROYAL Darwin Hospital conman Walter Wilton will join his co-offender John Zvimba for a stint behind bars despite a ‘belated’ attempt to make good some of the money he rorted from the public purse.

Wilton, 31, was today jailed for three years and six months with a non-parole period of one year and nine months, having in January, pleaded guilty to 36 counts of obtaining benefit by deception.

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John Zvimba at Royal Darwin Hospital.

Wilton’s barrister Jon Tippett QC today handed over a bank cheque for $20,000, the proceeds from the sale of his client’s Mercedes Benz to a family friend.

Justice Kelly said Zvimba — who worked in the engineering department at RDH — deserved a slightly heftier sentence than Wilton, “only for the reason that he as an employee and theft by a servant is more serious because it involves a breach of trust”.

The duo’s scam involved Zvimba raising phony work orders for electrical work at the hospital and assigning it to a company which Wilton fronted but in which Zvimba also had a stake.

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Wilton would then produce more phony paperwork including invoices and workplace safety documents for the fictitious jobs.

An internal investigation revealed neither Wilton or anyone from his company had accessed the restricted areas of the hospital he would have needed to have gone to do the work he was paid for.

Justice Kelly said Wilton’s account of his offending in an apology letter wrongly played down his wrongdoing.

She said the letter described “that (Wilton) didn’t really know that the work wasn’t being done and that (his) fault was in not coming forward when (he) realised there was something wrong”.

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Wilton’s portrayal of his offending was “utterly inaccurate”, Justice Kelly said.

“There seems to be no other explanation other than greed,” she said.

Mr Tippett said Wilton, a New Zealand citizen, faces the prospect of deportation after his release.

Justice Kelly ordered Wilton pay $74,000 in restitution, half of what the duo scammed the taxpayer of.

Wilton’s supporters burst into tears as he was taken down to the court cells to begin his jail sentence.