South Australian MP Troy Bell transferred money from his personal bank accounts back to the accounts of not-for-profits he is alleged to have stolen from, but there was “conservatively” $436,000 that wasn’t returned, a court has been told.
The independent member for Mount Gambier is facing trial in the SA District Court after pleading not guilty to 20 counts of theft and six counts of dishonestly dealing with documents, allegedly committed between 2009 and 2013.
Since the trial began on June 18 a jury has heard evidence that Bell, 50, abused his position as an Education Department employee to steal money meant to help vulnerable high school students and used it to fund property investments and pay debts.
Much of the trial has focused on the movement of money between bank accounts, and included five days of evidence from a forensic accountant.
Beginning her closing address on Monday, prosecutor Jemma Litster said there was no doubt Bell was a man who was well liked by most people with evidence that his personality and the way he interacted with people engendered trust and goodwill towards him.
“It's the prosecution case that he abused that trust and goodwill. That's one of the reasons why his fraud went unnoticed for so long,” she said.
“It's just human nature. I suggest people are less likely to challenge or scrutinise the conduct of someone who they like or someone who they admire.”
It is alleged that Bell stole funds intended to support high school students at the Independent Learning Centre in Mount Gambier, an annexe of the Millicent High School, to assist disengaged students who had returned to study.
Ms Litster has told the court the funds were deposited or transferred into accounts Mr Bell had personally set up in the name of the ILC. He had received those funds on behalf of two not-for-profits, the South-East Education and Training Association and the Limestone Coast Education and Training Association.
On Monday, she said his alleged offending occurred “out of the line of sight” and “failed to rupture the trust of those around him”.
“No one who was interacting with him was actually aware of what he was doing with the LCETA and SEETA monies, which were the subject of movements towards the Bell accounts,” she said.
She said the evidence suggested that even Bell’s wife, Michaela, wasn't fully aware of his offending and in intercepted phone calls played to the court, he was trying to “placate her”.
“I suggest to you that he was simply communicating to her that her husband wasn't a criminal and that their family would be OK,” Ms Litster said.
She said the reason that there had been “backwards” transfers between Bell’s personal accounts and the not-for-profits’ accounts was “obvious”.
“The accused had to return funds to keep the programs functioning, otherwise they would have ground to a halt, and his system would have been exposed further,” she said.
“There was still $436,023 that went out that didn't come back. And members of the jury, that was a conservative calculation, I suggest, in Mr. Bell's favour - the accountant didn't include certain invoices.”
The trial, before Judge Rauf Soulio, is continuing.
