The former executive officer of a West Australian Aboriginal corporation has been ordered to pay more than $430,000 in compensation and penalties after he borrowed money from the non-profit entity that he couldn't repay.
Ashley James Taylor took $211,612 from Geraldton-based Murchison Region Aboriginal Corporation between 2011 and 2015 without approval from the directors, and only repaid $29,085.
Federal Court of Australia Justice Michael Barker said Taylor's offending represented an abuse of trust placed in him by the corporation and depleted its cash.
The corporation suffered a net loss of about $195,483 just before Taylor resigned in 2014.
"Mr Taylor's contraventions are of a most serious kind," Justice Barker said in his judgment on Thursday.
Taylor was ordered to pay the corporation the remaining $182,527 and its court costs.
He was also fined $250,000 and disqualified from managing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations for seven years.
Taylor was living rent-free in a house owned by the corporation for most of his 12 years in the role.
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