The former chief financial officer of intelligent locks vendor TZ Limited John Falconer has been sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of defrauding the company of $6.27 million.
John Falconer, who also served as the company’s director, was extradited from Thailand in September last year and was charged with 16 counts of dishonest conduct and two counts of supplying false information to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
This comes less than two years after former TZ Limited director Andrew Sigalla was sentenced to 10 years in jail in February 2017, when he was found guilty of defrauding the company of nearly $9 million.
“As a director of TZ Ltd, the offender was placed in a position of considerable trust, which he abused over an extended period,” Justice Adamson said in the sentencing remarks.
“He acted in gross dereliction of his duty. The offences involved both dishonesty and greed.”
Falconer plead guilty to four counts of using his position as a director dishonestly, with the intention of directly gaining an advantage for himself or others; one count of using his position as a director dishonestly, reckless as to whether the use may result in others directly gaining an advantage; and one count of authorising or permitting the giving of information to the ASX relating to the affairs of TZ Limited, which he knew to be false or misleading.
The dishonest conduct was related to Falconer’s authorisation of illegitimate payments from the company’s accounts between December 2006 and September 2008, reaching a total of around $6.25 million.
Falconer was found to have also given false or misleading information as an officer of TZ Limited, specifically with financial reports lodged with the ASX. He was found to have failed to disclose the true nature of certain payments within the reports.
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