Tourism Whitsundays Massive Fraud

Whitsundays Online
Partially sourced from the Daily Mercury : Sarah Crawford - full story

This story started when this publication raised concerns about the operation of Tourism Whitsundays with the QLD Premier, Anna Bligh in May 2008, suggesting an investigation and audit of Tourism Whitsundays. Yesterday, the Financial Controller of Tourism Whitsundays was found guilty of stealing over $350,000 and was sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison.

Tourism Whitsundays Financial Controller, Susan Riley, was sentenced yesterday after pleading guilty to stealing $354,724.83 from her employer between January and September 2008, and will be eligible for parole in August, 2011.

Riley, who has a 10-year-old child, pleaded guilty to fraud. It was an ex-officio guilty plea which meant the case was fast-tracked to sentencing.

Justice Magill said after the fraud was discovered “a significant number of members chose not to renew their membership with the organisation”.

However Tourism Whitsundays membership numbers have been plummeting since 2004 (4 years before the fraud), when there were over 400 members - now there are only about half that number, representing less than 10% of businesses registered in the Whitsundays.

The CEO (Peter O'Reilly) and Board of Directors of Tourism Whitsundays created the conditions that allowed this massive fraud against the community, and they too should be held accountable.

Maybe It's Time to "Clean Out" Tourism Whitsundays and replace the board and management with an Administrator . . . the Whitsunday's Tourism industry is too important to the Whitsundays, Queensland, and Australia to be run by people with potential "conflicts of interest' and 'hidden agenda'. Where there is one bad egg . . . . .

Tourism Whitsundays should be run by State and/or Federal and Local Government appointed public servants who have no commercial ties here - that is probably the only way the majority will have any confidence in Tourism Whitsundays again.

Partially sourced from the Daily Mercury : Sarah Crawford - full story

Editors Note :
* So as we would not compromise the investigation, court proceedings and eventual conviction, we gave a promise to the QLD Premiers Department in June 2008 to not report certain facts of this story until after sentencing.
* The General Manager of the Whitsunday Times, our local paper, is also a Director of Tourism Whitsundays, however there has never been a disclaimer accompanying any TW story.