The insolvency administrator of Brookvale, NSW Roller Poster Pty Ltd, who made news in 2016 when they went bust while printing the Labor Party's election posters, has pleaded guilty to dishonesty and fraud at Downing Central Court. Amanda Young was employed as a partner with Jirsch Sutherland, who sacked her upon discovery of the misappropriation of around $240,000 from four liquidations. She has been barred from acting as a liquidator and will face sentencing next month.
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| Roller Posters was in the process of printing Labor's 2016 posters when production had to stop |
While her guilty pleas relate to two other liquidations, the Roller Poster and one other will be 'taken into account' when sentencing takes place in the District Court in February or March.
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| Amanda Young |
In the ASIC statement, they note:
"The two charges relating to the liquidations of Admark Property Group Pty Ltd and Roller Poster Pty Ltd will be taken into account for sentencing by the District Court, in line with s16BA of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth)."
Roller Poster was bought out of administration by Roger Kirwan's Foxcil Group, who saved some of the jobs, took over the plant and moved into the larger premises. The plant included an ageing Simon VK flexo press, which Kirwan said he would continue to use for packaging work since he is a flexo printer by trade. The Roller Poster website now directs to Foxcil and the name has been dropped.
Apparently, Young misappropriated the funds by tricking another Jirsch Sutherland partner into signing bank cheques that ultimately ended up in accounts and credit cards controlled privately by her. She masked the payments as 'dividends' for creditors of companies being liquidated. The Jirsch Sutherland partners themselves re-imbursed around $193,000 into the subject companies' liquidation accounts, with further recovery being sought from Amanda Young.
ASIC notes: "The maximum penalty for an offence against s 192E of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) is ten years’ imprisonment. The maximum penalty for an offence against s 184(2) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) is five years’ imprisonment."
Ms Young entered the guilty plea before the Downing Centre Local Court on 19 January 2021 and has been committed for sentence in the District Court, Sydney.
The matter is being prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions after a referral from ASIC. It is next listed for mention in the District Court, Sydney, on 26 February 2021.
