The Queensland Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Dr Roger Munro against his conviction on three counts of fraud.
In May 2022, Dr Munro was sentenced to four and a half years jail with a non-parole period of 15 months, after pleading guilty to the fraud charges (22-102MR). He was released in August 2023, after serving his non-parole period.
Dr Munro lodged an appeal in May 2022 which was heard in October 2023.
The Court of Appeal today found that no substantial miscarriage of justice occurred when the primary judge refused to allow Dr Munro to withdraw his guilty pleas in April 2022. This was the sole basis advanced by Dr Munro on appeal.
Between March 2013 and April 2014, Dr Munro received $299,600 from three investors after he had invited them to invest in his trading scheme, TradeStation Futures Trading Fund.
Rather than investing those funds in TradeStation, as he had represented to the investors, Dr Munro dishonestly applied the funds to pay for personal expenses, make cash withdrawals, make payments to other investors and transferred funds into a trading account held in the name of Dr Munro’s wife.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions prosecuted this matter after a referral of a prosecution brief by ASIC.