Disgraced Gold Coast rich-lister Craig Gore has been sprung by corrections officers virtually meeting employees and taking a digital tour of a building connected to a business he was illegally running from jail.
The son of Sanctuary Cove developer, Mike Gore, pleaded guilty in the Ipswich Magistrates Court last week to carrying on a business from the Borallon Correctional Centre between February 19 and March 13 last year.
He also confessed to calling an approved telephone number and asking for someone else.
The developer and former motor racing team owner was fined $1,500 for both offences.
In Queensland, it is illegal to carry on a business while in custody.
Gore has been incarcerated since November 2020 after being convicted of six counts of fraud, following an investigation by the Corporate Watchdog ASIC, which led to his arrest in 2017.
According to court documents, Gore was on a video conference at the jail on March 11, 2021, when a corrections officer saw the person he was speaking with showing him pictures of a building via Facebook.
The corrections officer then saw the man on the video call walking around with his phone and introducing Gore to employees.
He was also given a tour of a building via video link.
When a corrections officer entered the room, Gore hurriedly told the person on the other end of the conference to hang up.
Police later searched Gore's cell and found documents relating to business dealings, according to the court documents.
Gore's phone calls from the jail show he made several calls to someone who is a chief executive officer of a corporation.
Documents show on February 19, 2021, Gore phoned a person who was authorised on his prison call log to discuss business affairs, but later called them back and asked for another person to be connected to the call.
The court heard this call went for four minutes and Gore and the other party discussed business affairs.
A second call was made in March, where Gore asked for a third party to be brought into the room, but court documents show it is not clear whether the person was present as the call continued.
Gore was questioned by officers about the documents and would not disclose any information, only to say he was no longer on the board of any of companies, police said.
He was sentenced to five years behind bars after the Queensland District Court found he swindled investors through a debenture scheme that included mum and dads running with self-managed super funds.
The fraud totalled about $350,000 and was used to pay company debts and rent on his Queensland home between 2013 and 2014, the court heard during the trial.
Gore unsuccessfully appealed the conviction to the Queensland Court of Appeal and also attempted to appeal to the High Court of Australia, but was not granted special leave to do so.
He will be eligible for release in October after two years of his fraud sentence has been served.
