The Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal today upheld the appeal of Mr Joachim Prehn, a former Burnie-based insurance agent and financial adviser, against the severity of a six-year jail sentence imposed on him last year by the Supreme Court of Tasmania.
On 12 August 2002 Mr Prehn was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to 28 counts of fraud laid following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Mr Prehn pleaded guilty to being knowingly involved between 30 June 1995 and 13 July 1998, in Joachim Prehn Insurance Services Pty Ltd misappropriating client funds of $1,714,229.
Mr Prehn was originally sentenced to six years jail, to serve a non-parole period of four years, and enter into a recognisance of $10,000 to be of good behaviour for two years from the date of his release.
Mr Prehn did not dispute his guilt or the facts of the case, but appealed against the severity of the sentence. The Court of Criminal Appeal allowed his appeal to a limited extent, by varying the recognisance order so that he will be released from jail after serving three years.
The matter was proseucted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, who also made submissions before the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Background
In passing sentence last year, His Honour Mr Justice Underwood categorised Mr Prehn’s criminal conduct as ‘... sustained and deliberate. It was entered into and persisted with to satisfy [a] pathological urge to gamble. Each crime was a grave breach of trust committed against those who could ill afford to lose their money’.
The majority of clients defrauded by Mr Prehn’s actions were ‘retirees, or other people who depended upon their capital for day-to-day living’, His Honour said.
The insurance company for whom Mr Prehn acted as an agent has compensated the clients who lost money as a result his actions.
In February 2000, ASIC permanently banned Mr Prehn from acting as an investment adviser or as a representative of a securities dealer. ASIC also obtained Supreme Court orders to appoint a receiver to the property of Joachim Prehn Insurance Services Pty Ltd and to Mr Prehn’s personal assets, in order to secure those assets for the benefit of investors and creditors of his company.