Four years' jail for S Central chief Peter Mavridis

Peter Mavridis, the former chief executive of defunct reseller S Central, has been sentenced to prison for four years and eight months.

The County Court of Victoria handed down the sentence yesterday, specifying a non-parole period of three years for Mavridis, 43, of Craigieburn in Melbourne.

Mavridis' conduct was "deliberate, repetitive and systemic", His Honour Judge Roy Punshon said in handing down the sentence, and the S Central chief had "used and exploited an employee" in carrying out his crimes.

The former executive was found guilty by a jury in the same court last month on "33 charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception and false accounting". The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had pursued the matter following an Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigation.

Mavridis' release from jail will be followed by a five-year period in which he is prohibited from managing companies.

"Mr Mavridis' sentence sends a strong message, particularly to heads of companies," said ASIC commissioner John Price. "ASIC will use all means necessary to take strong action against those considering fraud or encouraging employees to behave in this dishonest manner."

According to ASIC, the court had previously heard that in the period between January and September 2009, Mavridis "directed the financial controller of the group to submit duplicated and/or falsely inflated invoices to National Australia Bank Ltd under a debtor factoring agreement, which led to credit totalling approximately $4.8 million being advanced to companies within the S Central Group".

"Debtor factoring involves the assigning of debts that are owed in exchanged for credit advanced by a finance provider. In order to retain ongoing access to bank credit, Mr Mavridis signed end-of-month reconciliations that disguised the falsifications and had them submitted to the bank," stated ASIC last month.

S Central sold its assets to Brennan IT in November 2009 then went into liquidation in 2010, leaving "deficiencies" of more than $7 million.

Financial controller David Cologna pleaded guilty in 2013 to five charges of falsifying books, in a result also prompted by the ASIC investigation.