Racing fraudster Bill Vlahos gets nine years jail for punting scam

Racing fraud Bill Vlahos has copped a nine-year jail term over one of Australia’s biggest punting scams, which a judge described as “brazen dishonesty”.

Racing fraudster Bill Vlahos will spend time in jail for his punting scam.

Racing fraud Bill Vlahos has been sentenced to nine years’ jail over one of Australia’s biggest punting scams.

The former high-flyer has finally faced justice - eight years after the Herald Sun exposed him.

Punters who invested in his fake betting club lost their homes, their marriages and their dignity.

Vlahos, 56, had pleaded guilty to two charges of fraudulently obtaining $17.5 million from 71 punters, avoiding nine separate trials.

However the actual losses were closer to $150 million but many embarrassed club members refused to be part of court action.

Vlahos was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria on Friday.

Judge Douglas Trapnell sentenced Vlahos to six years’ jail on the first charge of obtaining financial advantage by deception.

He sentenced Vlahos to five years on a second charge, with three years of that sentence to be served cumulatively.

In total, the “effective sentence” was nine years, with a minimum of six years jail.

Vlahos has already served 682 days on remand.

Judge Trapnell said Vlahos’ offending was motivated by “sheer greed”.

He said that Vlahos had the “audacity” to dupe punters with “blatant and brazen dishonesty”.

Vlahos took money from punters claiming to bet on Sydney and Melbourne races each Saturday.

But the bets were not placed.

Racing syndicate fraudster Bill Vlahos. Picture: David Crosling

“In the language of the turf, your members did not get a run for their money,” Judge Trapnell said.

He added that Vlahos funded a “dazzling” lifestyle with other people’s money.

Judge Trapnell was shocked at Vlahos’ “extravagant lifestyle”.

He listed examples of his top-shelf spending, including a $30,000 jacuzzi, a $59,000 bill at the Shangri La Hotel in Singapore, a $149,000 Lexus and a $71,000 Audi.

The court also heard of a $103,000 trip to Dubai for Vlahos and his friends, including business class airfares.

Vlahos also used punters’ money for his BC3 Thoroughbreds company, which paid $5 million for a half-brother to Black Caviar.

Judge Trapnell labelled Vlahos’ offending as “egregious”, saying he must have known that he was ruining the lives of those in his club.

He called Vlahos a “narcissist” who continued to take money into the punting club, particularly after late 2012, when he knew it was doomed to fail.

Judge Trapnell summarised the victim impact statements of 20 punting club members, some of whom had lost more than $1 million.

Victims detailed their horror when they realised the club was a scam, with many forced to sell their homes to pay their debts.

Several punters divorced amid the fallout from the losses of the club, including one who had been married for 34 years.

“He had fantasies of unbridled success,” Judge Trapnell said.

Vlahos’ wife Joanne attended the hearing via video link.

The couple have two children and have been together for 24 years.

Vlahos, wearing a v-necked white T-shirt and jeans, shifted uncomfortably in his chair while listening to the sentencing hearing from Marngoneet jail in Lara, Victoria.

He has been on remand since February last year and was still wearing his wedding ring.

The maximum sentence for each charge of obtaining financial advantage by deception was 10 years.

Bill Vlahos and his wife Joanne with one of their horses before the punting club collapsed. Picture: Supplied.

The sentencing comes after Vlahos created fake screenshots showing $200 million balances at the same time as his wife’s internet banking profile was used.

New details emerged about the alleged use of Joanne Vlahos’ internet banking profile as part of her husband’s crimes before he was jailed.

News Corp Australia is not suggesting Joanne Vlahos had any knowledge her account was being accessed or has committed a crime. She has never been charged with any offence relating to the punting club.

Vlahos, who ran racing company BC3 Thoroughbreds created one of Australia’s greatest racing scandals with the collapse of his punting club in 2013.

The ponzi scheme, which cost 1800 punters across Australia a total of $150 million, sent shockwaves through the racing industry when the Herald Sun broke the story in 2013.

Punters who invested in the scheme say it's a scandal that Vlahos has been able to delay the court process for eight years.

“How can this have taken so long?”, an angry punter said this week.

Punters, from high flying business moguls to factory floor workers, believed the club, known as The Edge had $500 million in winnings.

Money unwittingly given to Joanne Vlahos

$20,000 - to pay credit card on July 15, 2009
$410,000 - cash transfers to Joanne Vlahos’ account between 2008 and 2013
$385,000 - cheque Vlahos made out to his wife in July 2011
$960,000 - cheque from Vlahos to Joanne Vlahos on November 20, 2011
$47,000 - a jockey’s whip that had belonged to Black Caviar
$40,229 - Singapore school fees for Vlahos’ children

But it was a fake, the bets were never laid, and even if they had been, no bookmaker would have taken odds that allowed the syndicate to claim 130 per cent profit in a year.

A victim impact statement provided to the County Court revealed the trauma caused by Vlahos.

“For months I was paralysed and couldn’t find a possible future. Sleeping a maximum of two hours a night and often walking the streets at 3am by myself,” a punter said.

A 114-page prosecution summary has provided details about the use of Mrs Vlahos’ account as part of the scheme.

The documents alleged Joanne Vlahos’ internet banking profile was used four times when false balance screenshots were made to convince punting club members there was cash in the syndicate.

One of the false screenshots had “the date of 22 May 2013, time 22.30 and internet logs relating to Joanne Vlahos reveal her internet banking profile with Westpac was accessed at the time the false screenshot was created,” the prosecution’s case summary said.

Bill Vlahos at the Barooga hotel in February 2014 just months after The Edge collapsed.

Bill Vlahos celebrating at the Emerald Hotel in South Melbourne.

A second screenshot, claiming to show Vlahos had $121 million in the bank, allegedly had the same “date and time stamp” as Joanne Vlahos’ internet banking log activity.

A third screenshot, with a $125 million balance, was created at the time when Joanne Vlahos’ internet banking profile was accessed, the prosecution’s summary said.

A fourth screenshot, showing a balance of $194 million, was created at the time when Joanne Vlahos’ internet banking details were allegedly used.

The prosecution summary also states Vlahos sent millions to Joanne Vlahos’ account from punting club money.

He planned to turn the company into a racing powerhouse, but the business was never profitable and collapsed as soon as the punting club was disbanded when people discovered it was a scam.

Bill Vlahos and his wife Joanne at Christmas in the aftermath of the club’s collapse.

Vlahos also spent $100,000 on a holiday to Dubai with friends, which included a stripper he had met at Men’s Gallery in Melbourne.

The stripper’s email account was later used to send emails on behalf of the club, but the woman denied that she had any involvement in sending the notes.

There were claims that Vlahos had also paid for the stripper’s breast enlargement.

Vlahos tried to defend his wife, in a draft email he wrote but never sent on November 28, 2013, just weeks after he front a Sydney court to reveal that his punting club money had “vanished”.

“I will do everything in my power to ensure the law, friends and everyone else involved understand that you have had nothing at all to do with what had happen(ed) both legally and morally. You are as innocent as everyone else,” he wrote.

“Please believe this – as hard as it will be for you to believe anything from me – that I will do what I can for others to see the truth about the fact that you have had nothing to do with any of this.

“You are a beautiful person that deserves none of this. You trusted me implicitly. I am responsible for everything that has happened. Me and only me.”

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Originally published as Racing fraudster Bill Vlahos gets nine years jail for punting scam