Defrauded club hit sucker punch
A NSW legion club that suffered an $800,000 fraud at the hands of a "registered adviser" has been ordered to pay legal costs for another one of the "adviser's" clients.
The Court of Appeal Supreme Court of NSW ordered the Riverwood Legion Club to pay Tina Fistar's costs, overturning a ruling by the Supreme Court of NSW which found that the club was entitled to judgment against her as a recipient of funds that had been misappropriated as part of the fraud.
Court papers revealed that on 18 December 2013, Fistar gave a cheque for $598,853.53 to Divna Repaja, who represented herself as a "registered financial planner" and furniture dealer.
On 24 February 2014, [Simon] de Munck, the chief executive officer and company secretary of the Riverwood Legion and Community Club, caused an amount of $800,000 to be transferred electronically from the Club's bank account to that of Repaja & Co, the papers said.
By this time, most of the funds provided by Fistar had been dissipated.
On 25 February 2014, Repaja procured a bank cheque in the amount of $599,999.99, which was drawn using funds in Repaja & Co's account and was made out to the vendor of a property in Dolls Point property that Fistar had purchased.
The court said Repaja provided that cheque to Fistar's solicitors, who delivered it to the vendor's representatives at settlement on 27 February 2014, however, the Court of Appeal ruled that Fistar did not received the funds as a volunteer, rather it was a repayment by Repaja of an existing enforceable debt.
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