S Central boss found guilty of deception

The former chief executive of collapsed IT services company S Central, Peter Mavridis, has been found guilty of obtaining a $4.8 million line of credit from NAB by deceit.

Corporate regulator ASIC brought 33 charges against Mavridis in April last year for obtaining financial advantage by deception, false accounting and dishonest use of his position as a director.

ASIC alleged the former CEO submitted duplicated and falsely inflated invoices to NAB to secure the line of credit, and falsified documents to support false invoices.

Mavridis was ordered to stand trial in August. He pleaded not guilty.

He was yesterday found guilty of of all 33 charges brought by ASIC.

The court found Mavridis had ordered his financial controller to submit the fake invoices to NAB, leading to the line of credit, between January and September 2009.

In order to obtain ongoing access to the credit, Mavridis "signed end-of month reconciliations that disguised the falsifications and had them submitted to the bank," ASIC said.

Mavridis was granted bail and ordered to appear in his sentencing hearing in the week starting November 9.

The maximum penalty for obtaining financial advantage by deception, false accounting and dishonest use of a position as a director is 10 years imprisonment.

The verdict against Mavridis follows the conviction of S Central’s former financial controller David Cologna.

Cologna was sentenced to 12 months jail under a two-year suspended sentence in November 2013 for falsifying the company's books

S Central had provided IT services to customers across NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

It went in and out of liquidation in the year prior to April 2010 before completing the process on 23 December 2010. It left total deficiencies of more than $7 million, and its staff and goodwill were later sold to integrator Brennan IT.