A Cairns adviser who was sentenced to eight years for the misuse of investor funds will appeal his conviction.
Following a three-week trial, Drury Management co-director Piet Cornelius Walters was convicted on 16 September of 14 charges of dishonesty involving more than $972,000 belonging to 10 clients.
On Friday, the Queensland Court of Criminal Appeal granted Walters the right to appeal his conviction. The court set aside the conviction and ordered a new trial.
He ran accounting practice Drury Management between 1999 and 2003. Walters is also wanted on a Canada-wide arrest warrant relating to 26 counts of theft and 25 charges of fraud, allegedly committed in Canada under the name of Fred Siebolt Hofman.
After Walters’ sentencing in September, ASIC executive director Jan Redfern said those who abused clients’ trust would be pursued with the full force of the law.
