S Central boss to stand trial for deception

The former chief executive of collapsed IT services company S Central, Peter Mavridis, has been ordered to stand trial on deception charges over a $4.8 million line of credit from NAB.

Mavridis’ trial follows the conviction of S Central’s former financial controller, David Cologna, last November for falsifying the company's books. Cologna was sentenced to 12 months' jail in a two-year suspended sentence.

An investigation by corporate regulator ASIC had revealed Cologna submitted duplicated and/or falsely inflated invoices to National Australia Bank under a debtor factoring agreement in 2009, which led to a line of credit totalling $4.8 million being advanced to S Central.

S Central went in and out of liquidation in the year prior to April 2010 before completing the process on 23 December 2010. Its staff and goodwill were later sold to integrator Brennan IT.

The company’s employees claimed they never received their full entitlements, and a group of disgruntled staff put up a website to follow the movements of S Central managing director Peter Mavridis following the sale.

ASIC yesterday revealed Mavridis would stand trial for deception from September 21 next year, following a two-day committal hearing in Melbourne that wrapped up this week.

The regulator brought the 35 charges - of obtaining financial advantage by deception, false accounting and dishonest use of position as a director - against the 42 year old in April.

The maximum penalty for the first two charges is 10 years imprisonment. Mavridis has pleaded not guilty.

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