A former Queensland premier admitted to paying thousands of dollars in legal fees for a serial fraudster who described him as a 'father figure'. The premier maintains he was misled and used by the young con artist while trying to help him turn his life around.
A former state premier has admitted to paying thousands of dollars in legal fees for a serial fraudster who has described him as a “father figure” but maintains he was misled and used by the young con artist while trying to help him turn his life around.is wanted for fraud offences in Queensland after being jailed for scamming an ex-partner out of $130,000 in Sydney and being accused of paying a fake house deposit worth $50,000, among other alleged scams.
Aston confirmed to this masthead that Borbidge paid Prince-Popovich’s fees after he allegedly defrauded the lawyer by reversing his own payment. Prince-Popovich denies this.Borbidge, who served as the 35th premier of Queensland from 1996 to 1998 until losing office amid the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, said he was “gutted” to learn that he became “a victim in this as much as anyone else”.
Barr said he met Borbidge through a mutual acquaintance and they had no formal business relationship. He said Borbidge asked if he would consider hiring Prince-Popovich for a project of his that did not materialise. “He said, ‘I’ve been arrested, can you find a lawyer for me? I don’t know who else to turn to’,” Borbidge said.
Borbidge said he believed Prince-Popovich’s claims that he had a two-system verification on his payments, and because his phone and iPad had been confiscated by police, he could not verify the payments, and they subsequently were not made. “I thought I was helping a young guy in trouble re-establish himself, right through the process. He’d never done the wrong thing by me. I’m just devastated that I’ve been, quite frankly, misled and used,” he said.Prince-Popovich told this masthead Borbidge had been a father figure and valuable mentor to him through difficult times.
He is listed in ASIC records as a director of a tourism company, Experience Gold Coast, arts organisation Placemakers Gold Coast and healthcare charity Trinity Health Services.
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