Sri Lankan man pleads guilty to using stolen money to lure star cricketers to Australia

A man of Sri Lankan origins living in Australia has pleaded guilty to obtaining financial advantage by deception in a bid to put on T20 cricket tournaments featuring high-profile international players.

Navishta Desilva, 36, had reportedly defrauded his employer of nearly AUD 250,000.

He funnelled most of the money into events his personal company Global Talent Entertainment was organising featuring his cricket club Endeavour Hills and a star-studded line-up of international cricketers.

There is no suggestion Endeavour Hills or the players were aware of any wrongdoing.

Mr Desilva turned to fraud after sponsorship funding for the events fell through, the Victorian County Court heard on Friday.

“It seems to stem from immaturity and grandiose ideas,” Judge Brookes told the court.

Dressed in a dark suit with open collar, Mr Desilva spoke softly as he pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

Over the course of 16 months between March 2021 and July 2022, Desilva arranged for 18 different purchase orders from Omnivision to CCTV master, a legitimate business which supplied his employer with surveillance cameras.

By setting up a fake email address pretending to be from CCTV Master, Desilva was able to send fake invoices to Omnivision for inflated amounts which he funnelled into his own bank account.

The fraud was noticed when an ex-colleague of Desilva’s audited the transactions he had been involved with after he left the company in July 2022.

He has since repaid the money by working nights as a labourer in addition to a 9-5 job, and borrowing money from friends and family, defence barrister Sam Norton told the court.

The court heard Mr Desilva had enjoyed a promising youth career as a cricketer, representing Sri Lanka at U-15 level and playing for the same club as legend of the game Kumar Sangakarra.

When his dreams of a cricket career fell flat, he migrated to Australia at the age of 20, where he worked in a series of jobs including three years in auditing at Deloitte.

Judge Brookes warned Mr Desilva he could be jailed for the “devious and prolonged” offending.

“This is the sort of offence where ordinarily the community expects a period of jail,” Judge Brookes said, noting that Mr Desilva’s job at Deloitte would have given him the skills required to pull off the fraud.

Toni Stokes, prosecuting, implored the judge to impose a prison term for the “very serious offending”, noting that Mr Desilva had been convicted of a similar offence a decade earlier.

Mr Desilva will return to court for sentencing on October 30.

--Agencies