Qld: Clarke jailed for nine years over investment scheme

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2000
Qld: Clarke jailed for nine years over investment scheme

A businessman who ripped off elderly investors for more than $500,000 has been jailed
for nine years.

DONALD EDWARD GEORGE CLARKE, 59, pleaded guilty in the District Court in Brisbane to
seven counts of misappropriation and another seven counts of Corporations Law breaches,
between July 1991 and March 1994.

District Court Judge MANUS BOYCE says CLARKE systematically betrayed investors, many
of them in their 70s, who lost their life savings.

CLARKE advertised in newspapers offering a high interest return to investors.

He used their money in his debt factoring business, Kerradale Pty Ltd, based at Caboolture,
on Brisbane's northern outskirts.

Debt factoring involves buying a company's debts and paying them out for a commission.

The business went bad, and CLARKE used more investors' money to prop it up.

Judge BOYCE sentenced CLARKE to nine years jail with a recommendation for early parole
after three years because of his early plea and health problems.

CLARKE had one hip replaced last year, and the other replaced earlier this year.

AAP RTV smk/sc/jx/jn

KEYWORD: CLARKE ( BRISBANE)

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