The case of the ex-Peppermint Grove councillor accused of stealing millions from a colourful chicken farmer

You won’t find multi-millionaire Ghassan “Gus” Jabado on a rich list or in the social pages. He is “fabulously wealthy” but unlike most of WA’s well-off, he didn’t inherit his millions or reap the rewards of iron ore royalties. The Lebanese immigrant, who came to Australia in 1969 with nothing, made his $28 million from a far different industry — chicken farming — and the sale of the poultry farm he had built up over three decades with his late wife Maria. Mr Jabado’s rags-to-riches tale — and how he accuses a western suburbs accountant of siphoning $4m from his accounts between 2007 and 2010 to “subsidise” his own lifestyle — was laid bare in the District Court this week. The millionaire former chicken farmer was the star prosecution witness in the case against ex-Peppermint Grove councillor, 52-year-old father-of-two Scott Francis Fleay, whom the couple had given an enduring power of attorney. But when Mr Jabado — who claims to be worth up to $19m today — took the stand there was no flashy suit, instead he opted for a black T-shirt and carried his belongings in a plastic shopping bag. His low-key appearance did not match his sometimes colourful testimony, in which he denied extraordinary allegations he would “standover” Mr Fleay after their relationship went “badly sour”. And when it was Mr Fleay’s turn to tell his version of events yesterday, he admitted their relationship blurred “a line between professional and personal”, involving family Christmases and birthdays together and advice on “dealings”. One of those deals, Mr Fleay said, involved the Caratti family and a $5m to $6m loan, which would be secured with a penthouse at the Raffles Hotel, but it did not go through because “Mr Jabado thought the property wasn’t satisfactory”. While admitting the relationship was unethical, Mr Fleay — who was earning about $300,000 a year at the time — denies he did anything illegal. His lawyer Simon Freitag told the jury: “You cannot steal what is given to you.” Mr Freitag argued that every cent of the Jabados’ money that ended up in accounts controlled by him was either a loan, gift or payment for legitimate accounting work he had done for Mr Jabado. All of that cash — plus interest — has been paid back. “You may be asking if he ultimately got everything back ... why are we here?” Mr Freitag put to the jury in his opening address on Monday. “And the defence says the answer will be found in the anger and controlling behaviour of Mr Jabado.” Mr Freitag claims the chicken millionaire’s “motivation for complaining to police” was “not to fix up stealing” but for “revenge” after a “close personal relationship between him and Mr Fleay went badly sour and he felt (Mr Fleay) had betrayed him”. It was argued that Mr Jabado’s anger stemmed, in part, from his discovery that Mr Fleay was helping his wife access her money behind his back to give to her family, which Mr Fleay said the millionaire “absolutely loathed”. The court was told both Mr Jabado and his Italian wife, could not write English very well and “could not understand” complex legal documents. So the Jabados relied on their accountants, including Mr Fleay when he was handed their file in about 2003. About the same time, Mrs Jabado became “very unwell” and when the sale (of their poultry farm) went through, prosecutors say the couple “relied even more heavily” on Mr Fleay. To “make it easier” Mr and Mrs Jabado decided to give Mr Fleay enduring power of attorney — which gave him the ability to conduct transactions on their behalf. “So the Jabados, in particular Mr Jabado, placed a significant amount of trust in Mr Fleay,” prosecutor Katrin Robinson said. “Unfortunately it turned out that the Jabados trust in Mr Fleay was misplaced. “The fact that his clients were extremely wealthy and very trusting ... provided an opportunity for Mr Fleay to subsidise his own family’s lifestyle.” One way Mr Fleay did that, according to Ms Robinson, was by setting up a superannuation fund for the couple and siphoning money from it. Two weeks after setting up the fund, Ms Robinson claimed that without the couple’s knowledge, Mr Fleay transferred $2.3m to his own account, which he used to buy a $3m property in Peppermint Grove. It was also alleged that in 2008, Mr Fleay transferred $2m from Mrs Jabado’s account to buy another $2.5m home on Broome Street in Cottesloe. Ms Robinson also pointed to three transfers amounting to $90,000. “I can’t tell you what he did with it,” she said. “However, what is interesting is that about one month later, in November 2008, Mr Fleay purchased a Range Rover for nearly $80,000.” However, Mr Fleay maintains that Mr Jabado lent him the money for his houses, telling him at one point that “the banks are a bunch of c...s”. “He said ‘my boy, we have money, we can lend it to you, and you can pay us so we are not out of pocket’,” Mr Fleay said. Mr Fleay said at first he declined the offer, but Mr Jabado got “agitated” and “offended” and yelled: “Isn’t our money good enough for ya?” He said he drew up an “acknowlegment of debt” document and agreed to a 6 per cent interest rate. But he said despite repeatedly asking for a copy, Mr Jabado kept the only one. When he offered to pay some of the money back, Mr Jabado allegedly told him “no, not now my boy, you need to fix this piece of shit up”. Prosecutors also alleged Mr Fleay would thieve from the couple by making out pre-signed cheques to himself, his own company or a third party — the Australian Taxation Office and American Express — “to pay his own debts”. It was also claimed cheques that the Jabados instructed should go to charity at the end of the financial year were also pocketed by him. That was denied. Mr Fleay said he became “more like a personal assistant” for Mr Jabado and claimed some of the transactions were for the work he did for him, and claimed he was also given up to $300,000 in gifts in instalments between 2005 and 2010. Ms Robinson says Mr Jabado became “suspicious” shortly after Mrs Jabado’s death in 2010 and Mr Fleay had deposited $1m into her account. Mr Freitag told the jury the deposit made Mr Jabado “very angry” and “very paranoid” with Mr Fleay because “it went into an account that he did not ultimately control”. He believed Mr Fleay knew about Mrs Jabado’s “secret will” which “cut him out of getting access to her money”. And it was claimed that Mr Jabado was controlling of his wife’s finances — and it “drove him crazy” that Mr Fleay had helped her behind his back to get access to her money. The court was told that on Boxing Day 2010, there was a meeting between the pair where it was alleged Mr Jabado grabbed Mr Fleay demanded “everything back and “demanded why he took money from Maria”. It was alleged Mr Jabado grabbed his neck and threatened to “snap” it, reminding him he had a gun. Mr Fleay testified that when he tried to produce a document that had a list of transactions and dates with Mrs Jabado’s signature next to it, he yelled “it’s a lie and a fraud, my wife would never do that”. Mr Fleay could not produce it for the court, he said, because Mr Jabado ripped it up and “ate it”. In his testimony, Mr Jabado denied telling Mr Fleay about the time he shot at a car after an attempted break-in at his chicken farm and “the last time I wasn’t a good shot because he lived. This time I’ll do better”. He also denied bombarding Mr Fleay’s employers, as well as the Shire of Peppermint Grove and Presbyterian Ladies’ College, where his wife teaches, with anonymous letters outlining his allegations. “He did what he did and he knows in his head, his heart and his soul he did the wrong thing.” Mr Jabado , who complained to police in 2018, alleged. Mr Fleay will continue giving evidence on Monday.