Macks Advisory’s Peter Macks cops three-year ban

A prominent Adelaide liquidator has copped a three-year ban after forging documents in an attempt to foil an ASIC investigation.

A high profile Adelaide liquidator who was found to have provided forged documents to ASIC has copped a three year ban in the Supreme Court.

Macks Advisory’s Peter Macks has had his registration suspended for the next three years and will be forced to step down from his current insolvency appointments.

Last October Mr Macks was found to have provided fabricated documents to the corporate watchdog as part of an investigation into his conduct.

Justice Sam Doyle found that in 2010, Mr Macks fabricated two memoranda by placing on them the initials of colleagues working at PPB - the firm he worked for at the time.

The documents were later supplied to ASIC as part of its investigation into his conduct as liquidator of two companies - Bernsteen Pty Ltd and Newmore Pty Ltd.

ASIC had been seeking a seven-to-10 year cancellation of Mr Macks’ registration as an insolvency practitioner.

Macks Advisory’s Peter Macks.

But in his judgment handed down in the Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Doyle said the 63-year old’s “unblemished career” outside of the misconduct demonstrated it was an “aberration” and justified a lesser penalty.

However, Mr Macks has been ordered to pay 50 per cent of ASIC’s legal costs.

“Given the isolated nature of Mr Macks’ conduct, and the professional and personal price that he has already paid for that conduct over an extended period of time, there is very little risk that he would ever again engage in any dishonest conduct, and little need for additional personal deterrence or to protect the public from him,” Justice Doyle said.

“Further, a period of cancellation or suspension of seven to 10 years, as contemplated by ASIC, would operate particularly harshly upon Mr Macks, and effectively end his career.

“It nevertheless remains important to mark the court’s disapproval of his dishonesty, and to ensure that the penalty imposed is adequate both to ensure a level of general deterrence, and to preserve the public’s confidence in the regulation and supervision of insolvency practitioners.”

October’s ruling found Mr Macks forged the documents in order to create the false impression that he had justified legal proceedings against a third party who owed money to Bernsteen, and that others at his firm concurred with his view.

In Friday’s judgment, Justice Doyle said Mr Macks fabricated the documents during the early hours of the morning before he was due to produce them to ASIC, and in circumstances where he was likely to have been under “significant pressure and stress”.

“That pressure and stress, while no doubt particularly acute at the moment he created the memoranda, was likely the product of a significant accumulation of frustration and stress as a result of several years of involvement in litigation with Mr Viscariello (Bernsteen director John Viscariello), and ASIC’s investigations in relation to the same,” he said.

“While in no way excusing Mr Macks’ conduct, these considerations no doubt explain why a person of Mr Macks’ otherwise good character throughout a long professional career engaged in such conduct.

“On the other hand ... the isolated nature of the misconduct in question must also be considered in the context of Mr Macks’ perpetuation of his dishonesty through his subsequent denials of it.”

Macks Advisory liquidator Ian Burford will take over insolvency matters currently being overseen by Mr Macks.