and their staff fabricated financial records for more than five years to steal $15 million from Westpac; money that was used to expand a Northern Territory farming empire and pay down mortgages on houses in Sydney’s leafy inner-west, a court has found.
Justice Ball found the pair and their employee – Sahar El-Ahmad – deceived Westpac. Fresh Xpress created “entirely fictitious” accounts, which includedand overstated profits, submitting them to the bank to justify massive increases to the company’s loan facility, up to $15 million, he found. “The need for increases in the over time arose from the fact that some of the funds drawn down … were siphoned off for other purposes,” he said.The money was passed onto Cheeky Farms – a major mango farmer in the Northern Territory that once boasted the largest packing shed in the Southern Hemisphere –More than $1.5 million stolen from Westpac was also used to pay down mortgages on houses in Haberfield, Strathfield and Bossley Park in Sydney.