An Indigenous leader from Victoria's southwest will spend at least three years behind bars for ripping off the community he was meant to be serving. Geoff Clark was sentenced in the county court after a ten-year investigation that found he used his positions of power to steal almost a million dollars. His eldest son Jeremy Clark escaped prison time, despite being complicit in parts of his father's fraud.
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00:00Jeff Clark's victims know him well. Many, a family.
00:06A lot of people tend to forget that too. So, you know, it's a bit more personal.
00:11The great-grandfather stole from them for almost two decades while he controlled the Framlingham Indigenous community in Victoria's southwest,
00:19using his power to defraud Indigenous organisations and a community trust of almost a million dollars.
00:26The alarm was raised in 2010, sparking a complex, decade-long investigation that ended in three separate juries,
00:33finding Jeff Clark guilty of 25 charges. His son was found guilty of seven.
00:39Your dad is not remorseful, the judge said. Are you?
00:43Today, Clark was sentenced to six years and two months jail. His son escaped prison with a suspended sentence.
00:50Sites have been neglected, particularly along the Murray River.
00:53Jeff Clark was once known as a powerful advocate, as the former chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission,
00:59but prosecutors say he lived a double life.
01:02And divided our family, and today's my vindication.
01:08The stolen money funded maintenance on Clark's homes and personal legal fees after a civil trial in 2007 found he committed rape.
01:17Now he's convicted in the criminal courts too. Judge Michael O'Connell sat through all three of his trials and sentenced Clark today,
01:25saying his crimes were profoundly disappointing and morally reprehensible.
01:31The 72-year-old will have to serve at least three years, nine months jail before he's eligible for parole.
01:37Today is about the truth, and it's about moving forward.
01:41Long time coming. We can't change the past, we can only shape the future.
01:46Victims turning their focus to healing and compensation.