Deep depression, manifesting as suicide attempts, gambling and alcohol abuse, was the main reason gaoled former liquidator Peter Amos began stealing from liquidation accounts according to District Court Judge Robyn Tupman, whose long awaited reasons for sentencing Amos to four years in prison were published yesterday.
” … the offender claims that at least for some of the offences, the dishonesty amounted to transferring funds he knew he was not entitled to transfer because of the lack of an agreement, but in circumstances where he had actually completed work on behalf of that particular company, not yet covered in any remuneration agreement, either in advance or retrospectively”. District Court Judge Robyn Tupman.
Amos was sentenced in December last year to a term of four years, with the judge applying a minimum non-parole period of two years.
12 months earlier the 49 year old had pleaded guilty to six counts of dishonestly using his position to gain an advantage, offences which in Amos’s case involved transferring more than $2.5 million out of liquidation accounts to accounts controlled by himself or jointly with his now ex-wife, without obtaining the necessary approvals from creditors or the court.
In R v Amos [2024] NSWDC 687 the judge said that problems in Amos’s private life led to the onset of severe depression, which in turn by 2017 made him increasingly work “avoidant”.
“I actually accept his own insight about that period, albeit now developed with the benefit of hindsight, that he was already spiralling at that stage,” the judge said.
“He was not keeping time sheets, he was not working sufficiently in his business, he had employees, but he was not supervising them properly and there were some issues in relation to some of those employees.
“He was continuing to get referrals as an administrator and liquidator and doing some of the tasks necessary, but his ongoing and deteriorating mental health condition meant that he was not doing them properly.
“That included not seeking appropriate remuneration authorisations, let alone keeping time sheets which would justify those authorisations,” she said.
Amos’s depression, already exacerbated by COVID-stiffled workflows, worsened in late 2021 after ASIC queried his failure to lodge outstanding forms relating to receipts and payments in the administration of Mikcon Employment Services Pty Limited (Mikcon).
Receiving no response the regulator in April 2022 instructed him to stop accepting new appointments and in November of that year commenced a formal investigation. The jig was up.
Amos twice attempted suicide. He began drinking immoderately and gambling. But he also came to a sensible realisation.
He requested that his liquidator’s registration be suspended. He cooperated with authorities, leading to the formulating of an agreed statement of facts judge Tupman relied on in determining his sentence.
Amos admitted his crimes, though as the judge found, he persisted with a view that the money taken represented the actual value of work done.
” … the offender claims that at least for some of the offences, the dishonesty amounted to transferring funds he knew he was not entitled to transfer because of the lack of an agreement, but in circumstances where he had actually completed work on behalf of that particular company, not yet covered in any remuneration agreement, either in advance or retrospectively,” she said.
“Whilst many parts of the evidence he gave about this in court were just not credible, he was a credible witness in relation to other aspects of his evidence,” she added.
“He did not give the impression of being a fraudster or a conman in the way that people who often commit offences of this type present to the Court.
“It was certainly not the way in which he was viewed by his personal and professional colleagues up to the time he committed these offences according to the references that have been presented to court.”
The lengthy judgment details the balancing exercise a judge must make in cases of this kind.
The amount Amos admitted to pilfering was well beyond what could have been dealt with via an Intensive Corrections Order of the type ex-Jirsch Sutherland partner Amanda Arnautovic was afforded in February 2022 after pleading guilty in 2021 to fraud and dishonesty charges.
However with good behaviour Amos could be freed before Christmas 2026.
Further reading:
Ex-liquidator Peter Amos gaoled
Liquidator too anxious to convene meetings
Practitioner self suspends as questions asked about $3m
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