Former Spicers exec has his day in court

Richard Alfred Nagul's trial is currently underway in the Victorian County Court, where he is facing 36 charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception, one of obtaining property by deception and two counts of theft.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred between December 1993 and February 2001, while Nagul was on staff at the company on a salary of around $40,000. Robert Johnston, crown prosecutor, claims Nagul's actions only came to light when PaperlinX bought out Spicers Paper in 2001 and performed an audit on the company's books.

The most devastating accusation levelled against Nagul is that he engaged in a deceptive cycle that stretched out over a nine year period, relating to $210,000 he borrowed from the company in 1993. Prosecutors claim Nagul signed off more than 20 cheques to the value of $6 million. The cheques bounced every time, and the loan was worth more than $400,000 with interest by the time he was sacked from the company in 2001.

In addition, Nagul is facing charges over the theft of $32,000, as well as withdrawing over $400,000 from one of the company's bank accounts and transferring it into his own without the proper authorisation.

Last but not least, the prosecutors are accusing Nagul of misappropriating two company cheques to the value of $280,000 and $37,000 each, and using them to pay debts he owed the company. One of the cheques was allegedly given to him by a Spicers general manager to pay off company loans, while the other was from the estate of late managing director Peter Hammond.

The court was told last week that when Nagul was called before the company directors over the matter, he put his actions down to an attempt to buy him some time, and that he always planned on paying back the money he owned the company.

Arguing the case for Nagul, Paul Lawrie, lawyer for the defence, told the court his client was integral to the success of Spicers Paper, and that the company had different relationships and arrangements with its senior executives before the PaperlinX buyout, of which further information would be revealed during the trial.

The trial continues and is expected to last several more weeks.