The Kleenmaid fraud trial that that was due to start next week in the Queensland District Court is tipped to be adjourned with insiders telling ChannelNews that one of the accused in the $100M appliance Company collapsed has this week cut a deal and is set to plead guilty.
Three former directors of the Queensland based Kleenmaid
Group were set to stand trial on Monday, they were facing 20 criminal charges,
including a $13 million fraud against Westpac following the collapse of Kleenmaid.
At the time Kleenmaid operated 22 stores (including 15
franchise stores), and employed over 200 staff, more than 10,000 people were
left with debts as a result of the collapse.
6000 Kleenmaid customers lost over $28.5 million alone,
among them were hundreds who had purchased faulty products and when they went
to claim on their warranty found that the warranty claims were worthless.
Police charged the directors Bradley Young, Andrew Young and
Gary Armstrong with 18 charges of insolvent trading.
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| Brad left and Andrew Young right,facing several years in jail if found guilty. |
ChannelNews understands that lawyers representing Armstrong
have made an offer to the Commonwealth Director Of Prosecutions, that is now
being assessed.
Shortly after the collapse of the Company the Australian
Securities and Investments Commission mounted a major investigation, they later
claimed that Andrew Young and Gary Armstrong, dishonestly withdrew more than $300,000
from the company’s bank accounts two days before it was placed in
administration.
Creditors of the company were angry about the collapse, and
in April 2009 a group confronted Andrew Young armed with a sledgehammer, in the
hours after it was placed in administration.
The mob at the time claimed that they had been robbed
of deposits that they had been placed on Kleenmaid products.
Kleenmaid was placed in administration in 2009, in 2012 the
directors were charged with 18 counts of insolvent trading the charges related
to debts of more than $4 million which occurred after the Company became funds deficient.
All of the directors were committed to stand trial in the
District Court on March 31, 2014 by the Maroochydore Magistrates Court,
Brothers Andrew and Bradley Young who members of the Mormon
Church told ChannelNews at the time of the collapse that they were confident
that they could rescue the business.
ChannelNews has since discovered that Brad Young via his
wife Shelly Young is now running a shoe business called Frau. The business has a
store in Chatswood Chase NSW selling what they claim is Italian shoes.
Back in 2010 Linda Young, the wife of Andrew Young,
registered as a director of four separate companies.
Company records show the four companies were registered to a
light commercial park at 127 Sugar Rd, Maroochydore.
According to ASIC records, Linda Young is the sole director
of Sunny Coast Holdings and Stockton Nominees, while Shelley Young the wife of
Bradley Young is the sole director of Randolf Holdings and Mortimer.
All four companies were registered on February 25 2010.
Each of the four businesses share the same shareholder,
Gayle Hanpson, who has a registered address on the NSW north coast.
The person involved in setting up these businesses for the
Young’s was Wayne John Wessels.
In April 2014 ASIC suspended the registration of Wayne John
Wessels, the former auditor Kleenmaid, following a successful application to
the disciplinary body, the Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary
Board (CALDB).
The suspension started on 29 November 2013 and is for three
years.
ASIC alleged, and the CALDB found, Mr Wessels failed to
carry out and perform adequately and properly his duties as lead auditor of
Kleenmaid’s financial report for the year ended 30 June 2008.
Specifically, the CALDB found, among other things, Mr
Wessels should have brought a higher degree of professional scepticism to his
consideration of Kleenmaid management’s assumption of the company’s going
concern and that there were deficiencies in the standard of his evidence and
documentation of audit work done.
The new business ventures come after Andrew and Linda Young
were forced to sell their luxury riverfront Maroochydore unit for $1.5 million some $275,000 less than what Linda Young paid for it in 2007.
Soon after the company’s collapse, the intellectual property
was bought by Sydney private equity firm Compass Capital Partners.
Both Bradley and Andrew Young face lengthy jail terms if
convicted of fraud and insolvent trading charges. Time in prison could stretch
to six years.
The Young’s have hired barrister John Rivett, who
represented jailed former Queensland MP Gordon Nuttall who was recently
released from prison.
Armstrong has separate legal representation.
Each of the criminal insolvent trading charges under section 588G(3) of the Corporations Act 2001 carries a maximum penalty of $200,000 or imprisonment for five years or both.
The two fraud charges under section 408C of the Queensland Criminal Code carry a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 12 years.