Capital + Merchant men get parole

Wayne Douglas, left, is serving eight years two months in jail and Neal Nicholls eight years six months. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Capital + Merchant boss Wayne Douglas, who was serving one of the longest jail sentences handed out to a failed finance company director, has been released on parole.

His co-accused Neal Nicholls - sentenced to a record eight years and six months in jail - is due to be released sometime this month and is eligible for parole from tomorrow.

They both served less than three years of their more than eight-year sentences in jail.

Prisoners like Nicholls and Douglas are eligible for parole after serving a third of their sentences.

They were both jailed after a Serious Fraud Office case in which they were found guilty of theft by a person in a special relationship for loans totalling almost $20 million.

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They loaned money for their own benefit in breach of Capital + Merchant's trust deed. The firm collapsed in 2007 owing $167 million to investors, who have yet to receive anything back.

Already in jail, Douglas and Nicholls both had their sentences increased to more than eight years when they admitted misleading investors in a case brought by the Financial Markets Authority.

Douglas has now been released on parole and plans to find gardening work - his new-found passion.

The parole board's decision described Douglas as "compliant, polite and friendly" and said the "dominating aspect of his sojourn in prison has been his discovery of a passion for gardening".

Douglas worked in an offender employment nursery, studied horticulture, put in long hours and demonstrated high work standards, the decision said.

The board said there was no question that Douglas felt "deep remorse for his offending" and that he met the criteria for release.

He is due to resume living on a 100 acre farm - the location of which was not disclosed - with a woman who owns runs a livestock breeding business.

While out on parole, Douglas is not allowed to offer financial advice, or work as a director of a business involved in finance.

He is also not allowed to communicate with Nicholls or Capital + Merchant director Owen Tallentire, who was jailed but is now also out on parole.

Nicholls, who also worked in the offender employment nursery, is due to be released sometime this month, but the exact date is withheld in parole board's decision.

Nicholls was seen as a having a low-risk or reoffending and the parole board's decision says has received offers of work in the horticultural industry.

He faces similar release conditions as Douglas.

Read the Douglas Parole decision here:

Read the Nicholls parole decision here: