Mugabe Rapheal Mubake awaits sentencing for swindling former Tasmanian Liberal Senator Stephen Parry

A business owner who swindled a former high-profile federal politician in an elaborate email scam has asked for leniency, a court has heard.

A business owner has begged for no jail after he swindled a former high-profile federal politician in a scam involving over one million dollars.

Mugabe Rapheal Mubake, 25, was found guilty by Judge Joanne Tracey of multiple charges of fraud and money laundering after a trial in the District Court.

He was acquitted of two further counts of money laundering.

Tom Macura, prosecuting, told the court during the trial that Mubake dishonestly received over $1.2m from Stephen Parry between October and November 2021.

The court heard Mr Parry, a former Tasmanian Liberal Senator, sent Mubake several separate transactions over five days, under the mistaken belief that he was transferring funds to his conveyancer for the purpose of a property in Hobart.

Mugabe Rapheal Mubake was found guilty of multiple counts of theft and money laundering. Picture: Facebook

Former Senator Stephen Parry was a victim of the scam. Picture: Supplied

“The prosecution further allege that upon receiving those funds from Mr Parry, who had absolutely no connection to the accused, the accused then disposed of $608,000 from his primary bank account by making 14 separate transfers to other financial accounts,” Mr Macura said.

The court heard Mubake transferred $300,000 to separate Commonwealth Bank accounts, as well as $170,000 to Coinspot, which is a cryptocurrency trading platform.

He also transferred sums of money to people, including family members – they are not accused of any wrongdoing.

Mr Macura said Commonwealth Bank was able to freeze and recover most of the money, but $206,665.06 was not recovered.

The court heard Mr Parry received an email from Graham Woodhouse Conveyancing which he believed contained the firm’s trust account details and transferred the money over.

“It transpires that an unknown person gained access to Mr Woodhouse’s computer system and email account and then sent the fraudulent email on 29 October 2021,” Mr Macura said.

“The prosecution do not allege that the accused was the sole operator who was responsible for designing and executing the fraud.

“It may well be that the accused was part of a joint enterprise and was directed by others to provide his bank account for the purpose of receiving Mr Parry’s funds as part of a wider scam.”

On Monday, a prosecutor pushed for immediate jail, saying it could infer from the transactions that Mubake’s motivation was greed.

“This was a serious, sustained and deliberate criminal conduct involving a very substantial amount of money,” the prosecutor said.

Andrew Ey, for Mubake, told the court his client, who was born in Congo before moving to Australia, was employed in the real estate industry before his arrest.

The court heard Mubake, who has since found religion again, had developed a business earlier this year importing cleaning products which he resells online.

Mr Ey asked the court to order a home detention report for Mubake, who is appealing against the verdict, due to his young age and lack of criminal history.

Judge Tracey agreed to order a home detention report but noted there was no assurance that would be the sentence imposed.

Mubake will be sentenced in August.

Originally published as Mugabe Rapheal Mubake awaits sentencing for swindling former Tasmanian Liberal Senator Stephen Parry