Corey Ireland accused of fraud in submission to court

Angus cattle breeder Corey Ireland is allegedly “a person to fraudulently alter documents for profit”, it has been submitted to the Federal Circuit Court.

Focal point: Police muster cattle on Corey and Prue Ireland’s Riverina property near Wagga Wagga as part of an investigation into cattle trades.

ANGUS cattle breeder Corey Ireland has been accused of fraud.

A written submission filed with the Federal Circuit Court of Australia on November 28 last year by David Robens, counsel for Wagga Wagga cattle investor Richard Allsopp, alleged Mr Ireland was “proven to be a person to fraudulently alter documents for profit”.

Mr Robens submitted to the court Mr Allsopp’s trust sent an invoice — No. 124 — for $133,187.53 for sale of 22 bulls to the Ireland Family Trust.

He claimed Mr Ireland had then provided Holstons Pastoral Company principal Peter August with the exact same invoice, No. 124, which had been altered to replace the bull sale with 307 Angus heifers bought for $430,567.50.

The Weekly Times understands this was because Mr August was seeking proof the cattle he bought in another joint venture with Mr Ireland actually existed.

The second invoice version was used by Mr Ireland to prove to Mr August he bought cattle from Mr Allsopp to fulfil the joint venture.

Corey Ireland.

Mr Allsopp told The Weekly Times, the purported sale of 307 heifers by his trust to the Irelands did not happen.

The alleged doctored documents were provided by the court as a result of an application by The Weekly Times.

Mr Allsopp took court action against Mr Ireland to seek $220,000 he claimed was owed as a refund for 20 pregnant Ireland Angus cows he bought in May, 2015, for $10,000 each, plus GST.

Mr Ireland delivered the cattle to Mr Allsopp’s property at Big Springs south of Wagga Wagga.

Under the deal, Mr Allsopp would own the 20 cows but Irelands Angus would “record and retain ownership from an Angus Australia perspective to allow cattle to be sold through the IA brand”.

Irelands Angus would manage the cows and be responsible for animal health and genetic costs but Mr Allsopp was responsible for the feed.

Irelands Angus was to buy all calves from the cattle at weaning for $1200 plus GST — or a 12 per cent return.

It was one of three cattle deals Mr Allsopp was involved in with Mr Ireland.

A second for 50 female cows, for about $250,000, ended with a return of $264,000.

The third deal was for 370 Angus cattle from the dispersal of the Jondaryan stud near Toowoomba in Queensland.

Mr Allsopp agreed to pay $550,000 plus GST — a total of $605,000, or about $1635 a head on average — for the whole herd but wanted Mr Ireland to buy back his 20 Ireland Angus females and calves for $220,000 due to the huge total outlay for cattle.

He told The Weekly Times the plan was to sell all the original Jondaryan cattle plus progeny from the pregnant females within nine months.

All except 36 Jondaryan heifers were held on either on the Irelands’ Kyeamba property south of Wagga Wagga or on others leased by them.

In an affidavit to the court, Mr Allsopp said up until late 2018 Mr Ireland had repeatedly told him none of the female cattle had ever been sold, except for some culls.

He engaged Elders in 2018 to track down the Jondaryan cattle, a difficult task since he had never been given National Livestock Identification System numbers.

That’s when Mr Allsopp discovered 70 of the cattle were deceased and 86 cows were sold to Trent Walker of the Keringa Angus stud in Lameroo, South Australia, three years earlier, in August, 2015, for $275,000, or nearly $3200 a head.

Mr Walker rose to fame as the only SA star in the Farmer Wants a Wife program in 2011.

The Weekly Times makes no allegations against Mr Walker.

After confronting the Irelands about sale of Jondaryan cattle in August 2018, Mr Allsopp was eventually paid about $900,000 for sale of the original Jondaryan herd plus for progeny.

But he sought NLIS numbers of progeny to confirm he was paid all he was due.

In an email exchange with Mr Allsopp in March last year, Mrs Ireland said her husband substituted in Ireland Angus cattle into the Jondaryan herd after selling cattle to Mr Walker, claiming their own cattle were of “a higher quality”.

Mrs Ireland said in an email on March 20 last year, when the Jondaryan herd was sold by its owners, they invoiced Irelands Angus, not Mr Allsopp, and the cattle were delivered to the Irelands.

Prue Ireland.

She said Mr Allsopp was then invoiced for numbers of cattle but no NLIS tag numbers or other identifiers were provided. She said if some of the cattle were from the Jondaryan stud and others were from Irelands, “as long as the numbers have been maintained, then there is, in fact, no issue or claim”.

“I believe the information we have refused to provide is NLIS tag numbers, which I also will not provide, (because) they are unreliable, which I believe has been explained,” she said.

Mr Allsopp was seeking $220,000 from Mr Ireland for the 20 cows still outstanding from the original deal through the Federal Circuit Court.

But Mr Ireland claimed in his affidavit of September 26 last year the deal was with his family trust trustee company, CD & PJ Ireland, which ran Irelands Angus, not him personally.

Counsel for Mr Ireland, barrister Ashley Crossland, said in a submission to the court his client agreed to repurchase the 20 Ireland cows in mid-2016 but denied a buyback deal in 2015. Mr Crossland said the cows could only be bought back after Irelands Angus “first sold some other cattle to raise the necessary funds, which was expressly stated to only be intended to occur after the drought improved”.

He said other sales were attempted but they failed.

Mr Crossland argued Mr Ireland denied indebtedness to Mr Allsopp because he did not contract with him.

The Federal Circuit Court registrar Kim Lackenby dismissed the case against Mr Ireland.

Ms Lackenby said the evidence was unclear but left open the possibility whether Mr Allsopp had contracted with the Ireland family trust or Mr Ireland himself.

NSW Police are believed to be investigating Ireland cattle deals.

Mr Ireland did not respond to questions from The Weekly Times.

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MYSTERY surrounds a buyer of cattle from the Jondaryan Angus herd.

According to an affidavit lodged by cattle breeder Corey Ireland in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, Irelands Angus had intended to sell Jondaryan Angus cattle to Australian Premium Pastoral Company Pty Ltd but the deal fell through.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents show that company was a subsidiary of Australia Premium Pastoral Holdings Pty Limited, owned by 51-year-old Matthew James McMahon, of 212 Palmers Lane, Pokolbin, in the Hunter Valley.

Both companies were deregistered in December, 2018.

There is no suggestion they were in financial trouble.

Mr McMahon was an exporter of cattle and seafood to Asia, including Japan.

He registered Australian Premium Pastoral Group Pty Ltd in February last year, using 212 Palmers Lane, Pokolbin, as his residential address. Pokolbin Cabins is listed at that address.

Its manager, who did not wish to be named, said Mr McMahon rented a cabin for a few months about four years ago and had not been seen since.

He said Mr McMahon told him when he left that he was relocating to Vietnam.