The Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Queensland has granted a retrial to former financial adviser and director of the now-liquidated Growth Plus Financial Group, Ben Jayaweera.
Jayaweera had previously been convicted in October 2019 of six counts of dishonesty causing his clients a pecuniary detriment.
The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal on grounds including that deficiencies in the trial judge’s directions to the jury resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
In October 2019, the jury had found Jayaweera guilty of each of the six counts of dishonestly causing a detriment to various clients who invested approximately $5.9 million that was alleged to have been directed to company bank accounts to make payments to other investments and third parties.
Jayaweera was then sentenced to 12 years in jail after a three-week trial.
But the Court of Appeal decided to order a retrial on all six counts this week, quashing Jayaweera’s convictions.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions prosecuted the matter after a referral from the Australian Securities Investments Commission.
