A LAUNCESTON bowls club's former treasurer traded fraud for sexual favours from the president's daughter, Launceston's Supreme Court heard yesterday.
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While holding his committee position with the Cosgrove Park Bowls Club, Michael Bruce Clayton signed 64 blank cheques which, according to him, the former club president's daughter used to defraud the organisation of more than $156,000.
He also repeatedly "cooked the books" to cover her repeated thefts from the club's bank account.
She has pleaded not guilty to the crimes and her case is still before the courts.
Clayton has said he is willing to testify against her.
Crown prosecutor Alan Hensley told the court the 47-year-old's offending occurred over an extended period between May 2007 and June 2008.
Mr Hensley said after discrepancies were noticed by the club's new committee Clayton told police he had only continued to do what he knew was illegal because he wanted to get the woman "off his back".
Mr Hensley said the only benefit Clayton had received from his crimes was repeated sexual favours.
Defence lawyer Adrian Hall said the situation initially developed after Clayton noticed a food supplier's invoice for $70 and its corresponding payment cheque made out for $2000.
"He goes to her and realises she's taking the money," Mr Hall said.
The lawyer described a "poor cheque-writing system" at the bowls club at the time, with "blank cheques left lying all around the place".
But he conceded his client had continued to write cheques after he realised what the then-president's daughter was up to.
He said Clayton "did not receive a cent".
Clayton had a brief relationship with the woman but the sexual favours continued even after it ended, Mr Hall said.
"(The sexual acts or favours) corresponded with each of the times he almost had the courage to dob her in," Mr Hall told the court.
"That was her way of shutting him up - and so it continued.
"He felt trapped in the sense the president was (the woman's) father, so he buried his head in the sand," he said.
Chief Justice Ewan Crawford suggested Clayton could have told the other bowls club committee members what was going on if he was worried about broaching the subject with her father.
Mr Hall agreed.
He said his client - who transferred his membership to the East Launceston Bowls Club - was acutely embarrassed about what had happened, saying "every bowler in the North knows about it".
Mr Hall said Clayton had been unable to bowl for two years - until recently - because the state's bowls body would not "rubber stamp" his membership transfer after his offending became public knowledge.
But Mr Hall said the members of the East Launceston Bowls Club supported him and he would be "welcomed back with open arms" after he served his seemingly inevitable term of imprisonment.
Clayton has no criminal record and Mr Hall asked Chief Justice Crawford to consider suspending some of his sentence.
The judge remanded him in custody to be sentenced on Wednesday.