Darwin accountant Des Fong remanded after pleading guilty to $400k white collar stealing charge

COLOURFUL Darwin accounting identity Des Fong will get his first taste of prison life today, more than a year after being charged with stealing almost $400,000 from a client.

Darwin accountant and former local council candidate Des Fong arrives at the NT Supreme Court for sentencing proceedings.

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COLOURFUL Darwin accounting identity Des Fong will get his first taste of prison life today, more than a year after being charged with stealing almost $400,000 from a client.

Crown Prosecutor David Morters SC said: “imprisonment is inevitable, he has had the opportunity now to (get his affairs in order) and that outcome should be commenced as soon as possible”.

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

Fong pleaded guilty last month to stealing $399,657.80 from L2S Engineering Pty Ptd, a Perth-based company which had transferred money into his trust fund as part of a deal to purchase Darwin company, NT Welding.

Mr Morters said Fong’s criminal history was “relatively low level” but showed “his failure to comply with his obligations as a professional tax agent”.

Fong was in 2004 handed a three month suspended sentence for fraudulently signing a tax cheque.

“To the extent that a professional accountant needs a warning, it was a very strong warning as to his professional obligations,” Mr Morters said.

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“He has completely abrogated those responsibilities by stealing $400,000 from his client.”

“This offending has had catastrophic consequences for those that reposed trust in him.”

Mr Morters said Fong only admitted his wrongdoing in the lead-up to the trial.

Fong’s guilty plea, Mr Morters said, only came “when it was pointed out in no uncertain terms the overwhelming evidence the Crown would lead to prove this offending”.

Fong, in happier times.

“The crown submits it’s hardly a demonstration of remorse in relation to this serious offending,” he said.

Fong stood as a candidate at the 2017 Darwin local government election, attracting 622 first preference votes, having previously fronted a grassroots campaign to save the Daly St roundabout.

But Mr Morters said it was “clear that those subjective matters count little, if at all” because white collar crooks were often trusted members of the community.

Justice Stephen Southwood remanded Fong in custody and is expected to sentence him next week.