A Canberra man who defrauded nearly $30,000 from the ACT Public Trustee shifted the money to contractors he knew in the Zimbabwean community for work that never eventuated.
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Donald Tawanda Savanhu's deceptive scheme fell apart when a suspicious paper trail revealed a string of dodgy transactions and broken promises in 2014.
Savanhu, 37, was among four men police charged in 2015 after an extensive probe into allegations $1.65 million had been embezzled from people whose assets the government body held in trust.
He pleaded guilty in the ACT Supreme Court on Monday to 11 fraud offences, arising from 36 fraudulent transactions that amounted to $28,654, between March 2011 and January 2014.
Savanhu, of Ngunnawal, initially pleaded not guilty and was set to face trial this month.
Court documents said Savanhu was employed as a trust officer when he created false cheque requisition forms requesting funds be paid out on behalf of clients for maintenance or capital works on their property.
But the work was never carried out, or didn't match what had been promised.
Savanhu's offending came to light when the Public Trustee found out a client had paid significant amounts of money to two service providers over several years for work on property that was never completed.
It uncovered a string of suspicious transactions, ranging from about $600 to more than $3700, that involved several contractors and clients whose assets were mostly managed by two trust officers, one of whom was Savanhu.
Savanhu was suspended and the matter was referred to ACT Policing for investigation in January 2014.
One of the contractors, who had known the defendant through the ACT's African community since 2005, told police he would send invoices to Savanhu when he asked, court documents said.
Savanhu would then contact him after he received the payment and cancel the job, saying the work had been done by "one of his boys" or someone else. The contractor would then have to give the money back.
Another of the contractors said Savanhu would ask her to provide invoices for jobs she was not expected to carry out. He would transfer the money to her account, before she would later withdraw the amount in cash and give it back to him.
The third worker told police Savanhu promised he would get "heaps of work".
One of the other men charged over the deception, Joshua Leighton, 38, was jailed this year for a minimum of 19 months after he admitted to more than 100 dodgy transactions that amounted to $675,000. He spent the money at brothels and on pokies.
Two other men caught up in the scam, Timothy McLeod, 34, and Stephen Evans, 33, are still before the courts.
In March 2015, The Canberra Times revealed the office had stood down two staff after it discovered money was allegedly fraudulently taken from people whose assets it held in trust.
The trustee repaid more than $1.7 million to 87 clients, including interest, and overhauled risk management strategies after being alerted to the alleged embezzlement.
The small office helps to care for Canberrans who, as a result of illness, accident or disability, must give someone else the power of attorney to make decisions on their behalf. The trustee also administers estates of the deceased.
Savanhu will be sentenced in July.
