Former director charged with $103m Ponzi scam

Gavin Bennett, former director of DataSouth, is facing charges over a $103 million fraud. Photo / APN

Former Datasouth director Gavin Bennett has been charged over a $103 million fraud, including $65 million allegedly obtained from the failed South Canterbury Finance using false documents.

Bennett is facing six representative charges under the Crimes Act relating to 900 incidents of alleged misuse of a document and two charges of false accounting, the Serious Fraud Office said in a statement.

The charges allege that between April 2005 and March 2011, Bennett created false documents relating to leases on IT equipment and falsified entries in the financial statements of Datasouth Finance, part of the group, to retain an ongoing finance facility, the SFO said.

Bennett's actions were similar to a Ponzi scheme, obtaining funds to pay business expenses and for his own benefit, the SFO alleges. South Canterbury faced a financial loss of about $26 million.

Datasouth Group went into liquidation in March this year, with the loss of 42 jobs.

"The findings of our investigation allege a very sustained and large-scale fraud that not only had a very significant financial impact on South Canterbury Finance, but also, ultimately on the staff of Datasouth," said SFO chief executive Adam Feeley.

The SFO began its investigation into Datasouth on March 21.

According to the SFO statement, Bennett was the sole shareholder of Datasouth. The group provided IT-related services, including network design, data management and hardware leasing.

Customers wanting to lease IT equipment would enter a hire agreement with Datasouth Finance and the lease would then be financed by South Canterbury.

The SFO has a separate, ongoing investigation into South Canterbury.