Former Director and CEO of Bananacoast Community Credit Union Limited (BCU), Lyndon Allen Kingston, has been sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment after being found guilty of four dishonesty offences.

Following a four-week trial in the Brisbane District Court, on 12 November 2024 a jury found Mr Kingston guilty of the following offences which occurred between December 2015 and August 2017:

• dishonestly using his position to gain advantage for himself by unlawfully receiving payments from two BCU contractors, which were made to Mr Kingston without the approval or knowledge of the BCU board (counts one and two), and
• providing false and misleading information to the auditor of BCU to conceal the payments (counts five and six).

On 10 December 2024, Mr Kingston was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for count one, 18 months' imprisonment for count two, and six-months imprisonment for each of counts five and six to be served concurrently.

The court ordered that Mr Kingston be released after serving six months imprisonment upon giving security, by recognisance, in the sum of $1,000, conditioned that he be of good behaviour for the remainder of his sentence (12 months).

The jury were unable to reach a unanimous verdict concerning two further counts with which Mr Kingston was charged (counts three and four), and those counts were discontinued by the CDPP at the sentencing hearing.

At the time the offences were committed, Mr Kingston was the CEO and a Director of BCU. Previously, Mr Kingston had held professional roles in audit, regulation and as a banking executive.

ASIC chair, Joe Longo said, ‘As a director and CEO, Mr Kingston betrayed his position by dishonestly using his role to gain an advantage for himself, then attempting to conceal his wrongdoing. ASIC is committed to investigating dishonest conduct by directors and prosecuting such cases.’

In sentencing Mr Kingston, Judge Heaton KC said, ‘You were in a position of trust which you knew, and you exploited’ and ‘… [you] denied the board the opportunity to ensure good governance, transparency and integrity…’

The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) following an ASIC investigation.

ASIC acknowledges the assistance of APRA in this matter.

Background

BCU, at the time of the offending was a credit union based in Coffs Harbour. In 2019, it merged with Police and Nurses Limited, a community owned bank based in WA. BCU is now a division of that bank.

On 29 November 2019, Kingston was charged with (19-334MR):

• Three counts of dishonest use of his position as a director of BCU under section 184(2) of the Corporations Act (maximum sentence of imprisonment of five years),
• Two counts of providing false information to BCU under section 1309(1) of the Corporations Act (maximum sentence of imprisonment of five years),
• One count of making a false document with the intention of dishonestly inducing a public official to accept as genuine under section 144.1(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth) (maximum sentence of imprisonment of ten years), and
• One count of using a false document with the intention of dishonestly inducing a public official to accept as genuine under section 145.1(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth) (maximum sentence of imprisonment of ten years).

On 4 October 2024, the CDPP withdrew one of the seven counts against Mr Kingston. The count concerned his dishonest use of his position as a director of BCU under section 184(2) of the Corporations Act.

On 12 November 2024, a jury found Mr Kingston guilty of two counts of dishonestly using his position with the intention of gaining an advantage and two counts of providing misleading information to the auditor of BCU (24-253MR).