Thomas Graham Greenaway: Trial begins for Geraldton man who allegedly stole $2.9m from native title trust

A former deputy mayor of Geraldton is standing trial over the alleged theft of more than $2.9 million from an Indigenous native title fund, which was established to care for First Nations people in the Meekatharra area. Thomas “Graham” Greenaway appeared in Geraldton District Court on Monday morning for the start of his trial, which is anticipated to take between seven and eight days. Mr Greenaway, 73, pleaded not guilty to 33 charges of stealing, which was allegedly performed via the electronic transfer of funds between 2013 and 2017. State prosecutor Jason Chu told the jury in his opening statement, Mr Greenaway had allegedly defrauded the Yugunga-Nya People’s Trust of $2.9m through a series of 33 payments to a company, of which he was the sole director and executor. Payments ranged from $10,000 to $1.4m, for which Mr Greenaway was alleged to be both the lender and the borrower. The company, FAWRKT Pty Ltd, is the first initials of Mr Greenaway’s family members. Funds put into the FAWRKT account were reportedly used to gradually acquire shares in a local Geraldton business, the Freemasons Hotel, which Mr Greenaway became the sole owner of, once he had bought out four other shareholders. The hotel was listed under the name West Harbour Unit Trust. The jury was told the Yugunga-Nya People’s Trust had recorded a loss of $2.2m at the end of 2014. “Despite knowing there was no income, Mr Greenaway continued to take money from the trust account to continue running the Freemasons Hotel,” Mr Chu said. The prosecutor described Mr Greenaway as using the trust as if it were “a personal ATM”. In his opening statement, Mr Greenaway’s defence lawyer, Alexander Mossop, said his client had permission to invest money from the fund as he was the acting trustee and financial adviser for the trust. Mr Chu said one of the reasons provided by the accused was “creating employment and training opportunities for the Yugunga people”. Mr Mossop told the court his client had made the transactions as the result of legal advice, and it was “necessary to do that way. If the trust were to invest it directly (rather than going through FAWRKT Pty Ltd) it would lose its charitable nature.” The trial will continue into next week, with multiple witnesses being called to give evidence.