Former Bega art gallery director convicted of fraud over Archibald Prize ticket money

Publisher
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Date published
October 2024

Relevant impacts: Human impact, Reputational impact, Financial impact.

The former director of a NSW regional gallery, Iain Charles Dawson, has been convicted of defrauding the institution of tens of thousands of dollars in ticket sales from a touring exhibition of the 2023 Archibald Prize.

The conviction came after he made 49 transactions totalling more than $34,000 from South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Bega to his personal bank account. More than 6,000 tickets were sold across the 7 weeks of the exhibition, with an adult ticket costing $20. As director of the centre, Dawson managed online ticket sales for gallery events via the Eventbrite platform.

In early April, Dawson was told about the allegations being made against him. He was then placed on special leave pending the outcome of the investigation. The investigation found that Dawson was solely responsible for the fraud. He was handed a show-cause termination letter on 12 April and responded 5 days later, admitting to taking the money and offering to pay it back. He paid it back 12 days later by cheque.

Magistrate Doug Dick sentenced Dawson to a 3-year community corrections order and 200 hours of community service. He also ordered Dawson to undertake alcohol and other drug counselling treatment.

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Related fraudster personas

The Reckless

The Reckless acts without care, responsibility or regard to the consequences of their actions by disregarding requirements, procedures, warnings or directions to gain personal benefits.

The Concealer

The Concealer hides their actions from being seen or known about to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

The Exploiter

The Exploiter uses something for a wrongful purpose to dishonestly gain personal benefits.

Related countermeasures

Defined decision-making powers

Clearly document decision-makers using delegations, authorisations and instructions. Clearly defined decision-making powers increase transparency and reduce the opportunity for fraud and corruption.

User permissions in systems

Limit and control functionality within systems with user permissions. Assign permissions to users based on specific business needs, such as making high-risk functions limited to specialised users. The Protective Security Policy Framework sets out the government protective security policies that support this countermeasure.

Segregation of duties

Separate duties by allocating tasks and associated privileges for a business process to multiple staff. This is very important in areas such as payroll, finance, procurement, contract management and human resources. Systems help to enforce the strong separation of duties. This is also known as segregation of duties.

Reconcile records

Reconcile records to make sure that 2 sets of records (usually the balances of 2 accounts) match. Reconciling records and accounts can detect if something is different from what is standard, normal, or expected, which may indicate fraud.

Complaints handling

Allow clients, staff and third parties to lodge complaints about actions or decisions they disagree with. This may identify fraud or corruption as a cause for complaints, such as a failure to receive an expected payment.

Investigate fraud

 Investigate fraud in line with the Australian Government Investigation Standards (AGIS).

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