A former Gungahlin United president stole more than $31,000 from the football club's coffers in order to lease a private car, make personal purchases and top up his own bank balance.
Forde resident Aaron David Alexander, 50, was last Friday found guilty of 65 theft charges, following a five-day hearing conducted in February.
The United States citizen has been before the ACT Magistrates Court for two-and-a-half years, having been arrested in February 2020 and initially charged with 108 counts of obtaining property by deception.
Police alleged at this time that he had stolen at least $112,000 from the football club, of which he was the president between September 2016 and July 2018.
Magistrate Glenn Theakston dismissed all 108 fraud charges in May after Alexander's Legal Aid lawyer, Edward Chen, successfully argued there was no case to answer.
But prosecutors had also levelled 108 back-up charges of theft at Alexander and Mr Theakston only dismissed a fraction of those, leaving 70 outstanding.
The magistrate found Alexander guilty of all but five of the remaining charges last Friday.
Mr Theakston's decision, published on Monday, shows he concluded Alexander stole $31,097.86 between December 2017 and July 2018.
Alexander had exclusive access to the football club's bank accounts during that period, following the resignation in September 2017 of its treasurer.
The 50-year-old transferred club funds to his own accounts on 47 occasions, stealing $20,525 in this fashion and entering descriptions such as "Bunnings", "Costco" and "Towing" to describe the transactions.
Mr Theakston said there was evidence the club sometimes reimbursed members for legitimate expenses incurred from their own funds, but he was satisfied that had not happened in this case.
"Not only did the defendant have available for his immediate use a club debit card, with a $500 limit, he also had sole access to the club's main account using online banking," the magistrate said.
"It beggars belief that he, as an experienced businessman, would routinely first use his own funds to pay legitimate club expenses and then separately obtain reimbursement.
"That approach would limit comprehensive record keeping and possibly double the work required of the defendant when making such payments."
Alexander also frittered $8233.65 of the club's money away on lease payments for his personal vehicle; a purpose Mr Theakston described as being "patently beyond the legitimate use of club funds".
"This is so obvious it is axiomatic," Mr Theakston said in his decision.
"The suggestion to the contrary borders on being fanciful."
Alexander stole the remaining $2339.21 by racking up nine personal charges on a debit card issued to him for club expenses.
This money was spent at a HOYTS cinema in Sydney, Just Jeans in Belconnen and a Gungahlin pet store called Best Friends, as well as on Telstra bills and payments to the ACT Road User Service.
Mr Theakston rejected Alexander's potential explanations for this spending, which included that the club may have used gift cards from some of the vendors as fundraising prizes.
The charges Alexander was acquitted of involved $15,837.74 in cash withdrawals, about which Mr Theakston said he had "serious doubts". However, the magistrate said the club had paid for legitimate expenses in cash and he could not exclude the possibility that had happened here.
There was also a $324.43 debit card transaction at a darts shop on the NSW Central Coast. Because there had been some discussion about the club hosting a darts competition, Mr Theakston could not be certain this transaction was illegitimate.
Alexander will be sentenced at a later date.
