Appeals court clears Peter Gregg of charges of falsifying Leighton’s accounts

The former Leighton Holdings CFO has won his appeal against a ruling that he falsified accounts at the engineering group.

Former Leighton Holdings executive Peter Gregg in Sydney last year. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett.

Former Primary Health Care chief executive Peter Gregg has won his appeal against a District Court ruling that he falsified accounts in his time as chief financial officer of Leighton.

In a decision handed down this week the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the ruling.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which brought the initial claims, can appeal the decision.

Mr Gregg was a highly regarded former chief financial officer of Qantas and Leighton, as well as being chief executive of Primary Health before stepping down in 2017.

The issues at the centre of the case were based around dealings at Leighton in 2011.

In a statement in July last year ASIC said: “On December 11, 2018, Mr Gregg was found guilty by a jury after a five-week trial of two counts of contravening section 1307(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 by having engaged in conduct that resulted in the falsification of LHL’s (Leighton Holdings Ltd’s) books.”

“The first count concerned a written payment instruction from Mr Gregg in August 2011 to LHL’s treasury department directing that two payments totalling $US15m be made to Asian Global Projects and Trading FZE (Asian Global), a company incorporated in the United Arab Emirates,” it added.

Mr Gregg told The Australian he was delighted with the appeal court’s decision.