Former Australian cotton grower of the year John Norman has been sentenced to a maximum of nine and a half years in prison over his role in one of Australia’s most significant water frauds.

After a complex police investigation, seven years of backroom legal wrangling, and an eventual guilty plea, Brisbane District Court Judge Bernard Porter described the case as a “wide-ranging fraud” that had “benefit only [Norman] himself”.

As chief executive of Norman Farming, John Norman once commanded more than 18,000 hectares of “the largest irrigated and dryland cropping enterprises on the east coast of Australia”, according to rural land agents.

The Normans farmed west of Goondiwindi, about five hours from Brisbane in the Border Rivers region and at the headwaters of the Murray-Darling Basin.

During the development of their properties, between 2010 and 2016, Norman and his former chief financial officer pressured contractors to alter invoices — or changed invoices themselves — to fraudulently claim millions of dollars from a government scheme.

As part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, the Queensland government’s Healthy Headwaters program was designed to encourage farmers to invest in water efficiency measures.

Funded by the Commonwealth, it allowed irrigators to apply for money to improve irrigation infrastructure on their properties in exchange for a portion of the water savings being transferred to the government for environmental use.

The court heard Norman received almost $20 million through the scheme, including $8.7 million in fraudulent claims. 

Judge Porter said the fraud, involving dozens of local contractors, had “exploited” small family businesses.

He singled out one husband and wife operation who had been contracted to do general farm work, and pressured by Norman to change their invoice so it could be claimed as part of Healthy Headwaters. Having already completed the work, and under financial pressure, they complied with Norman.

Norman was sentenced to a maximum of nine and a half years in prison, with a three-year non-parole period.

Judge Porter said the fraud had brought the Healthy Headwaters scheme into disrepute and undermined faith in regulators.

The case is understood to be among the most significant water frauds prosecuted in Australia. 

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