A FORMER employee of Stuart Ariff Insolvency Administrators agreed in the NSW District Court yesterday that accounts he prepared for a Newcastle family company in liquidation did not tally with the company's bank statements.
Called as the sole defence witness in Stuart Ariff's fraud trial, Razman Razalee, an assistant accountant, agreed under cross-examination by the prosecution that the half-yearly accounts for HR Cook Investments Pty Ltd contained false entries.
Mr Razalee identified his own handwriting and initials on the original documents, known as form 524s and required to be lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. He also identified Mr Ariff's signature as liquidator of HR Cook.
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Mr Ariff is charged with 13 counts of transferring a total of $1.18 million with intention to defraud HR Cook and six counts of falsifying HR Cook's form 524s. He disputes he intentionally ''caused money to be withdrawn'' from HR Cook's bank account, that he at any time acted with the intention to defraud or that he signed any forms lodged with ASIC knowing that they were false or misleading.
In his examination in chief by Mr Ariff's barrister, Brett Hatfield, Mr Razalee said that after completing the form 524s, ''I handed them to Tina for review.'' Mr Razalee said he was referring to Tina Battye, the manager of the HR Cook liquidation, who was a central prosecution witness.
He did not recall having any discussions with Mr Ariff about the forms, or about HR Cook.
A check list attached to each form contained the question: ''Has bank reconciliation been completed for all bank accounts?'' Shown one of the forms, Mr Razalee said he had initialled it to indicate completion.
''Did you in fact complete a bank reconciliation for that form 524?'' Mr Hatfield asked.
No, Mr Razalee said.
The prosecutor, Trish McDonald, SC, later asked Mr Razalee about the same part of the check list.
''When you initialled that, that was an indication you were saying it had been done, wasn't it?'' Ms McDonald asked.
Yes, Mr Razalee replied.
''And that you had done it?''
Yes, he said.
Ms McDonald read to the court excerpts from a compulsory examination of Mr Razalee last year by ASIC investigators.
He agreed when Ms McDonald said that in his evidence yesterday he was ''trying to involve Tina Battye to a considerably greater degree in the preparation of the 524s than your evidence back in March 2010''.
He denied Ms McDonald's suggestion that ''you really can't recall things now and you are just blaming Tina Battye so that you don't get into trouble''.
Mr Razalee, who graduated as an accountant in Malaysia, said he was sponsored by Mr Ariff on a temporary business visa from 2007 until 2009 and since by a company run by Mr Ariff's brother-in-law, David Venner.
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