{"id":575744,"date":"2026-03-31T06:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575744\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:25:16","slug":"victims-of-ponzi-scheming-mildura-accountant-lament-manifestly-inadequate-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575744\/","title":{"rendered":"Victims of Ponzi scheming Mildura accountant lament ‘manifestly inadequate’ sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bankrupt accountant who chased his losses, provided false statements to cover his tracks, and did not voluntarily stop offending has been handed the minimum available sentence.<\/p>\n

Philip Shugg, 72, was sentenced on Tuesday in the County Court of Victoria to three years in prison, with a non-parole period of 18 months.<\/p>\n

\"Philip<\/p>\n

Philip Shugg will be eligible for parole in October 2028. (Facebook: Philip Shugg)<\/p>\n

He faced a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment for fraudulently inducing four people in Victoria’s north-west to invest $950,000.<\/p>\n

While being handcuffed in the dock, Shugg smiled at family members and said “see you soon”.<\/p>\n

His victims, who had told the court the offending left them anxious, angry, stressed and confused, were shocked by the duration of the sentence.<\/p>\n

Shugg’s trail of lies<\/p>\n

Philip Shugg had been operating Shugg Consulting in Mildura since 2000.<\/p>\n

Between 2012 and 2016, he urged multiple victims to invest in a company called Deakin Investments, without disclosing he was the sole director, company officer and shareholder of that company.<\/p>\n

The court was told he promised clients a fully secure and no-risk investment, with an interest rate return of 4 per cent.<\/p>\n

Shugg was part of what the prosecution labelled a Ponzi scheme.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Sean Brown and Chris Greig collectively lost $550,000. (ABC News: Wade Stephens)<\/p>\n

He routinely shifted deposited funds between clients’ accounts and produced statements to give the illusion the investments were working.<\/p>\n

Shugg declared bankruptcy in 2018 for other business dealings, and had since failed to return $693,000 in lost investments to the four victims.<\/p>\n

Manifestly inadequate<\/p>\n

Sean Brown was Shugg’s most recent victim, after he was convinced to deposit $250,000 in 2016 to free up funds to purchase a commercial property.<\/p>\n

Mr Brown said he has not received a single cent from Shugg, and that his jail term was manifestly inadequate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said he hoped it would be appealed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sean Brown and his wife Helen say they are disappointed by the ruling. (ABC News: Wade Stephens)<\/p>\n

“Eighteen months and he’ll be out, four charges, nearly a million dollars, [the sentence] is not much,” Mr Brown said.<\/p>\n

“It’s just making a mockery of the system.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a justice system, it’s an injustice system.”<\/p>\n

Chris Greig said the offending had continued to adversely affect him, as he had lost his retirement fund, by investing $300,000, and receiving $2,000 in repayments<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Chris Greig has only been repaid $2,000 of the $300,000 he invested. (ABC News: Wade Stephens)<\/p>\n

“I’ll be 78 next month, and I’m still working, what do you think that means?” Mr Greig asked.<\/p>\n

“People say why are you still working, I say ‘I have to’.”<\/p>\n

A difficult sentencing exercise<\/p>\n

Judge Mark Gamble said the sentence needed to deter others, but also be a fair punishment.<\/p>\n

He said Shugg had expressed remorse during a psychological interview \u2014 admitting he had been deceitful to clients and had “felt horrible”.<\/p>\n

Judge Gamble said Shugg’s age was a factor in sentencing and his prospects of rehabilitation were “really good”.<\/p>\n

He considered strong family testimonials, which described Shugg as a hardworking and kind person, who supported multiple community causes, and had a consistent work history.<\/p>\n

The judge said Shugg had endured partial punishment already, due the effect the arrest and charges had on his career and reputation.<\/p>\n

“I accept you have taken personal responsibility for what you did,” Judge Gamble said.<\/p>\n

The court was told if Shugg had not entered a plea of guilty, he would have received a term of imprisonment of four years and three months, with a non-parole period of 30 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bankrupt accountant who chased his losses, provided false statements to cover his tracks, and did not voluntarily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[90221,64,63,99,2973,48,354,48066,187],"class_list":["post-575744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-accountant","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-fraud","tag-mildura","tag-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}