No proper checks on chronic gambler: court
A SUSPENDED lawyer who placed bets of more than $14 million in five years was a "chronic" gambler who should never have been given access to a credit betting facility, a court has heard.
Christopher Fitzsimons, 62, is suing the NSW Government, the TAB and Tabcorp Holdings for more than $4.7 million, claiming he was invalidly approved for the $5000-a-week facility after providing his daughter's credit card as security.
His lawyer, Todd Alexis, SC, told the Supreme Court that Tabcorp had not checked whether the credit card, which had a $20,000 limit, was in someone else's name.
He said Tabcorp had also accepted an agreement signed by Mr Fitzsimons to direct debit from an account he held jointly with his wife, Maria, a former lawyer, and daughter Louisa Roberts, without requiring the signatures of all account holders.
Mrs Fitzsimons and Mrs Roberts, who are also seeking damages, did not know about his involvement in the scheme and continued to deposit money into the account to pay the mortgage on a holiday home in Cairns, the court heard.
"The facility should never have been offered in the first place," Mr Alexis told the court. "Mr Fitzsimons was a chronic gambler. If the facility was not made available to him then the enormous volume of betting pursuant to this facility would not have occurred."
Fitzsimons had gambled an "extraordinary amount" of money from year to year, some of which he had taken from his clients' trust accounts, Mr Alexis told the court. As a result he was suspended from practising law in 2005.
Mr Fitzsimons bet about $14 million between 2001 and 2005, including $4.5 million in the 2002 financial year.
Between April 2003 and June 2006 he placed more than 7000 bets under the credit betting scheme, worth almost $4 million.
He was one of only three people approved to take part in the now defunct scheme, which was approved by the then NSW gaming minister, Richard Face, despite a general government policy against credit betting, the court heard.
The TAB also installed computer facilities in his house and holiday home, the court heard.
Mr Alexis said Mr Fitzsimons had maintained a "facade of some prosperity" for years.
As part of his claim, he agreed to repay Tabcorp almost $1.5 million in money won under the scheme.
The court heard that Tabcorp had allowed Mr Fitzsimons to bet more than $3 million while his account was in overdraft, despite a TAB code of conduct that said the credit betting facility would operate in accordance with responsible gambling guidelines and that gamblers would not be able to overdraw their betting accounts.
Comments off » Print This Post » EMail This Post
No related posts
Loading ...