Macquarie Bank paid out $729k after ex-broker forged letters for business loans, claimed $68k commission: court

A former financial broker gained $68,000 in commissions by forging tax accountant letters for people who were not entitled to business loans for cars through a major Aussie bank, a court has been told. Charleen Henegan’s conduct was undone by her own hand, after she wrote a letter to Macquarie Bank admitting to creating the letters on 18 occasions, allowing several people to obtain business loans they were not entitled to. Macquarie Bank paid out $729,000 as a result, Brisbane District Court was told. In lieu of a jail term, Henegan walked from court on Tuesday with an 18-month suspended sentence, after pleading guilty to a single charge of fraud - dishonestly inducing a person to act. District Court Judge Deborah Richards noted an irony at the heart of Henegan’s offending, in that she committed the offence out of significant “financial pressure” at the time, yet had paid the “ultimate price … (of) financial ruin”. “You’ve lost your finance brokerage, you won’t be licensed again,” Judge Richards said. “There’s been a very heavy financial penalty that you’ve paid for this offending, for not particularly significant reward.” The court was told Henegan’s co-accused was a car dealer who set about obtaining business loans from Macquarie Leasing – a subsidiary of the bank – for his prospective customers. In order to secure the business loans, the co-accused inflated the value of the vehicles through a combination of falsifying tax invoices, winding back odometers and instructing “customers to create ABN numbers” for their loan applications. Henegan became involved as a passive financial broker for these applications, crown prosecutor Rhys Byrne said. “As part of a business loan application, Macquarie Leasing usually requires a letter from an accountant to confirm the car was being used for business purposes,” Mr Byrne said. Between December 2018 and April 2019, Henegan forged accountant letters on 18 occasions, falsely asserting customers were entitled to a business loan. Mr Byrne said Henegan received $68,000 in brokerage commission as a result. An investigation began in 2019 over the irregularities. Henegan admitted to Macquarie Leasing in a letter that she had used old account letter templates to forge the documents and that she was under financial pressure at the time, Mr Byrne said. Justice Richards questioned this, saying: “She could have just said no”. She also noted Henegan was not “entirely ignorant” of what she was doing, saying police found emails on her computer with customer pay slips, demonstrating they were not self-employed or sole traders. “There was also an email found on your computer from the car company telling you exactly what these false letters should say … that the vehicles would be used predominantly for business … and the tax was up to date,” Judge Richards said. Henegan’s barrister Evan O’Hanlon-Rose said the offending was an “uncharacteristic aberration” in the life of his otherwise law-abiding client. “The combination of all that was going on in her life at the time led to an impairment of judgment,” he said. The court was told Henegan’s co-accused – who was described as the “driver” of the offending – was sentenced to two years’ jail, suspended after 140 days in pre-sentence custody. Mr O’Hanlon-Rose said Henegan’s offending was not as serious as the co-accused’s, due to him being involved in 24 loans that resulted in Macquarie Bank paying out just over $1m. Henegan was subjected to significant financial and personal pressure at the time due to the combination of writing the letters, her own business experiencing problems and the death of a family member weighing on her. Several references attested to Henegan’s good character. She is currently the primary financial and practical carer for her husband, who is awaiting open heart surgery following a heart attack in 2022, Mr O’Hanlon-Rose said. “She is a woman who has been self-reliant from a very early age,” Mr O’Hanlon-Rose said. “She’s worked hard to achieve success in the financial services industry and her poor decision making has destroyed that work.” Judge Richards took into account Henegan’s significant remorse and “shame”, imposing an 18-month sentence, suspended immediately for three years.