The court heard he used the trust again when he made contact two years later, offering his services for a building that had burnt down and constructing staff accommodation.
However, Dale asked the council to pay for the project upfront, raised a number of invoices and ordered them to deposit the money into his own personal bank account.
Craig Robert Dale.Credit: ABC Four Corners
“You gambled the entirety of the money and, essentially, threw it away. You promised to pay it back, but to date, have returned none of it,” MacLean said.
Purdie said in her statement how Dale’s offending meant years later, the community had been unable to run its own aged care facility.
“I had arranged for about 12 elders to come back from Halls Creek and Kununurra after the rebuild to live in the facility but was unable to bring them back because the money was gone,” she said.
“This caused a lot of stress and anxiety for these elders, as well as all the members of our community. As of today, we have been unable to open up the facility due to funding.”
MacLean said it was particularly distressing for the community because one of their own was blamed for Dale’s offending, as he had signed off on the paperwork.
“It was he who trusted you and paid you, and that’s an individual example of your conduct diminishing the trust that the community has in its own governing structures and on outside agencies,” he said.
“The community was entirely vulnerable. The floods were, as Ms Purdie tells me, devastating for the community, and I accept Ms Purdie’s detail that it took her 10 years before she could even talk about it and that having you come into their community, stealing their money and betraying their trust like that was even more devastating.”
MacLean rejected Dale’s claim he was remorseful, and said the upset he had displayed in court was purely motivated by selfishness.
Warmun is 200 kilometres from the nearest town of Kununurra.Credit: Hannah Murphy
He said while he accepted Dale suffered from a number of mental health conditions, his intelligence had only made him a more effective predator.
“It is the case that prior to your involvement with the community, the community was in a strong financial position… it is the sad fact that that strong financial position was entirely deeply disturbed or destroyed by reason of your serious offending,” he said.
Dale was ordered to pay back the $2.7 million to the remote community, and was sentenced to seven years jail.
The sentence was backdated to September 2023.
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Dale was a known acquaintance of jailed bureaucrat Paul Whyte, who was masterminded the theft of $27 million from public coffers through faking invoices in his role at the Department of Communities.
It is understood the charges against Dale arose from the investigation into Whyte’s conduct.
At the time Dale was charged, then-Warmun Community acting chief executive Robert Skesteris said the news was welcomed by locals.
“They’re absolutely ecstatic that it’s reached this far and gone to court, and they feel quite relieved,” he said.
Skesteris said the missing money had created a significant financial burden for the community to overcome.
“It’s huge … funding from all sources is very tight,” he said.
“To be able to plan for the future and actually meet basic requirements in the community can be very difficult. It does have a big impact.”
Whyte was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years jail in 2021.