Fraudulent print broking surf boss jailed for 3 years

Matthew Hanks, who was the secret owner of a print broking business that he used as one of his frauds to steal $1.8m from Surf NSW while he was its general manager, has been sent down for three years three months.

Hanks who had a background in print before he became the $200,000 a year boss of the surf charity, set up print broking operation SeaHearSpeak once he was the general manager of the lifesaving association, and without telling Surf NSW he was the owner, sent the majority of the organisation’s print work to it. His company then outsourced the work to local trade printers, and sent back inflated invoices to Surf NSW.

SeaHearSpeak was just one of several frauds Hanks perpetrated on Surf NSW over a ten year period, others included buying cars for Surf NSW at wholesale price, then selling them himself privately. His crimes became, in Judge John Pickering's words “brazen” and “greedy”, at one point he simply sent a $121,000 government grant cheque for Port Macquarrie Surf Club into his own account.

Hanks spent the loot on funding two prestige properties on Sydney’s northern beaches, and on a $490,000 catamaran. He has since returned around $1.2m of the cash.

During sentencing Judge Pickering gave Surf NSW a spray for having such lax systems in place that Hanks could commit his crimes, saying it was "almost too easy", and also said the organisation’s victim impact statement, which outlined the financial and reputational damage the theft had caused, “was to some extent misleading”, given that they had received a significant amount of the money back, and had also received an insurance payout.

Sentencing Hanks to three years three months with a minimum non-parole period of 19 months, Judge Pickering said Hanks had shown remorse with “genuine regret”, and that “humans are complex.”