Clive Peeters
3/22/13
1:16PM Friday Mar 22, 2013 5,297 online now
How Clive Peeters lost then found its $20m
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How Clive Peeters lost then found its $20m
December 5, 2009 Lucy Battersby and Ian McIlwraith Read later
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Fighting back: Clive Peeters managing director Greg Smith. Photo: Wayne Taylor
IT WAS late on a Thursday night when Steve Rowarth, the financial controller at retailer Clive Peeters, had his wife drive him the short distance from their Warrandyte home to his boss Greg Smith's, so he could tell him face-to-face he had discovered a rat in the ranks. While much of Australia spent that July 30 day debating whether radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands should keep his job, Rowarth's team had been trying to work out why there were multimillion-dollar discrepancies in the company's accounts. The discovery was a revelation for a company that had spent more than a year struggling to reverse a bewildering decline in cash flow. Even more revealing, according to affidavits filed with the Victorian Supreme Court, was that as they tried to unravel why millions were missing, a trusted senior accountant, Sonya Causer, volunteered to help - although her ''help'' allegedly included altering the numbers to remove the imbalances. About 7pm that same day, she went into Rowarth's office, burst into tears and confessed she had been ''fudging the numbers''. It was that shock confession, and another discussion over a cigarette, that prompted Rowarth to visit Smith, rather than telephoning him. Smith was, after all, not just the boss - he and business partner Peter Lord own more
1:16PM Friday Mar 22, 2013 5,297 online now
How Clive Peeters lost then found its $20m
Do you know more about a story? Real Estate Cars Jobs Dating Newsletters Fairfax Media Network
How Clive Peeters lost then found its $20m
December 5, 2009 Lucy Battersby and Ian McIlwraith Read later
submit to reddit
Email article Print Reprints & permissions
Fighting back: Clive Peeters managing director Greg Smith. Photo: Wayne Taylor
IT WAS late on a Thursday night when Steve Rowarth, the financial controller at retailer Clive Peeters, had his wife drive him the short distance from their Warrandyte home to his boss Greg Smith's, so he could tell him face-to-face he had discovered a rat in the ranks. While much of Australia spent that July 30 day debating whether radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands should keep his job, Rowarth's team had been trying to work out why there were multimillion-dollar discrepancies in the company's accounts. The discovery was a revelation for a company that had spent more than a year struggling to reverse a bewildering decline in cash flow. Even more revealing, according to affidavits filed with the Victorian Supreme Court, was that as they tried to unravel why millions were missing, a trusted senior accountant, Sonya Causer, volunteered to help - although her ''help'' allegedly included altering the numbers to remove the imbalances. About 7pm that same day, she went into Rowarth's office, burst into tears and confessed she had been ''fudging the numbers''. It was that shock confession, and another discussion over a cigarette, that prompted Rowarth to visit Smith, rather than telephoning him. Smith was, after all, not just the boss - he and business partner Peter Lord own more