Former Wickham CEO pleads guilty to fraud

In a statement, ASIC said Garth Peter Robertson of Parrearra on the Sunshine Coast appeared in the Brisbane District Court and pleaded guilty to various charges brought by ASIC.

These charges include 10 counts of dishonestly obtaining $761,504 from Wickham Securities between December 2010 and November 2012 and one count of falsifying books relating to the affairs of the debenture issuer.

Mr Robertson has also pleaded guilty to nine counts of dishonestly obtaining $15,000 from Balmain NB Corporation Ltd in November 2010 as well as nine counts of giving or permitting the giving of false information about Wickham Securities to its trustee, Sandhurst Trustees Ltd in 2012.

Mr Robertson will be sentenced on 1 September 2016, ASIC said, with his conditional bail extended until that date. The matter had been listed for trial commencing 22 August 2016.

In December 2012, Brisbane-based Wickham Securities collapsed owing more than $27 million to approximately 300 debenture holders.

The group’s former chairman Bradley Thomas Sherwin, who was also the founder of Sherwin Financial Planners, was permanently banned by ASIC in May 2015.

He appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on 25 June 2015 after being charged with 33 counts of dishonestly causing detriment totalling nearly $10 million between May 2009 and December 2012 and one count of dishonestly breaching his duties as a director of Wickham Securities Limited between November 2009 and October 2010.