Peter Andrew Amos.
For Peter Andrew Amos it’s all about staying out of gaol.
So he can continue caring for his children, keep working for Coles, keep seeing his psychologist and keep hoping there’s life after a most spectacular fall.
Perhaps that’s why in the District Court of NSW on Monday the ex-liquidator’s desperation for an intensive corrections order (ICO) was palpable. The alternative must seem all but unbearable.
Gaol. Incarceration for a once successful registered liquidator, for someone who’s rekindled relationships with family in the midst of a terrible, albeit self-inflicted ordeal. For someone who’s forged a new relationship in the aftermath of a marital breakdown.
Amos knows what’s at stake and when the issue of whether an ICO was a suitable punishment for his sins was discussed by the judge and the parties’ respective counsel on Monday there was a noticeable increase in tension among those in the public gallery. Crunch time approaches.
The pressure was first applied in earnest in December last year when Amos pleaded guilty to six counts of dishonestly using his position as an officer of a company to gain an advantage for his business and himself. Sentencing him is taking a while, not least because the NSW District Court is said to be chronically under-resourced.
The crimes to which Amos confessed guilt encompass an amount of some $2.5 million he took from various external administration accounts he controlled as sole appointee between 2016 and 2022 which were used to pay everything from staff wages to private school fees.
On Monday Amos took to the witness box to be cross-examined about aspects of the agreed statement of facts that attended his guilty plea, part of what’s expected to be the final oral submissions on sentencing before judge Robyn Tupman delivers her judgment in September.
The court heard that in 2018 Amos had developed anxiety of such severity that it prevented him from holding creditors meetings to obtain remuneration approvals.
Instead Amos said he took what he anticipated he was and would be owed up front. Creditor approval would be obtained once he had conjured a solution he felt comfortable presenting.
Amos told the court that looking back he couldn’t comprehend how he could’ve been so anxious as to not convene meetings to obtain the necessary approvals.
The prosecution dwelt on bank records which showed descriptors Amos gave to transfers of funds he made to accounts outside of the administration account – specifically the phrase “term deposit” – insinuating that he was trying to conceal the true nature of what was occurring.
But Amos said it was a descriptor that was for all intents and purposes his eyes only so how could it be argued that he employed it as a means of deception.
There were also questions around the undertaking Amos signed with ASIC in late December 2022 whereby he agreed not to make any more transfers, and how but within days he moved a $500,000 deed fund contribution into a personal account.
Amos told the court he was by that stage suicidal and the court heard that he made an attempt on his life only a few months later.
He told the court how he had recovered from the worst of the anxiety, but was still working with his psychologist to learn how to cope with what he described as a “people pleasing” trait of his character.
Towards the end of the cross-examination Amos’s defence team put his new love interest on the stand. She talked about the relationship he has with his sons, who regularly stay with him and how he had repaired his relationship with his teenage daughter.
“Peter has grown. He’s really become a strong, compassionate person,” she said.
After the witnesses completed their evidence discussion turned to sentences.
There was talk of overriding principles like community safety, objective seriousness in the context of a white collar crime, and ICO’s, which the judge said were not so much a sentence as a means of imposing one. Her honour is expected to pronounce judgment early next month.
Further reading:
Ex-Liquidator to be sentenced for $2.5 million theft
Wife of ex-liquidator hit with $970k demand
Former staffer winds up Amos Insolvency
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