‘Unforgivable’: Former Sunshine Coast financial advisor jailed after ripping off clients over $650k

A former trusted financial advisor has been jailed after taking clients’ money to repay personal debts and prop up failing businesses and investments.

Former financial advisor Brett Andrew Gordon was jailed for stealing from clients' self-managed superannuation accounts.

Former Sunshine Coast financial advisor Brett Andrew Gordon has been jailed after taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients’ self-managed super funds.

Gordon, 55, plead guilty to nine counts of fraud from when he was the director of Refocus Financial Group Pty Ltd and Diverse Capital Management Pty Ltd and withdrew from his clients’ self managed super fund accounts from 2015 to 2018.

The court heard Gordon used the money, a total of $652,500, to pay for personal debts, credit card debts and tax.

Commonwealth prosecutor Lindsay Glenn said Gordon became a registered financial advisor in January 2005.

“The defendant was a financial advisor who advised at least 13 clients to invest in a property development company called Diverse Capital Management Proprietary Limited, which was owned and controlled by him,” he said.

“At least $1.362 million was invested.”

Mr Glenn said Gordon had taken funds from investors’ superannuation accounts without their knowledge or consent and taken funds from Diverse Capital Management Pty Ltd, which had been invested in property development or similar purposes.

Mr Glenn said Gordon continued his offending even when he had instructed solicitors to meet with a liquidator because he thought Diverse Capital Management Pty Ltd had become insolvent.

Defence barrister Mark McCarthy said Gordon had taken the funds to prop up his business.

“Not all of these funds were applied for his own use, some were for the maintenance of the business,” he said.

“(It was) decisions directed at the maintenance of a failing business and a failing series of investments.

“He has gotten in far over his head and struggled to stay afloat.”

Mr McCarthy said Gordon had become a gym owner and operator and been embraced by the Christian church community since moving back to his hometown of Bendigo.

In his sentencing, Judge Ken Barlow said Gordon’s conduct was “unforgivable”.

“Your behaviour during those years was unforgivable,” he said.

“Not only was your conduct deliberate and, seems to me, deliberately fraudulent, but it involved the monies of people who you would have been aware could not afford to lose that amount of money.”

Mr Barlow said the largest amount taken was $140,000.

“That client had authorised you to invest $40,000 but you transferred $140,000,” he said.

“Most of the others had not authorised you to use their funds or investments in any particular manner.”

Mr Glenn argued for a sentence of seven or eight years, with a period of custody between two and a half to three years.

“General deterrence is the paramount issue when sentencing offenders convicted of white-collar offences such as these,” he said.

“The defendant was a financial advisor, professional, in a position of trust that was afforded to him by not only his clients but the community.”

Mr Barlow sentenced Gordon to six years’ prison, with a probationary term of 18 months.

The court heard Gordon had not made any reimbursements to his clients but they had recovered their funds through professional indemnity insurance.

Originally published as ‘Unforgivable’: Former Sunshine Coast financial advisor jailed after ripping off clients over $650k