Mr Norman appeared in the Brisbane District Court. Photo: Queensland Law Society

FORMER Toobeah cotton grower John Douglas Norman will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to six counts of fraud relating to a Federal Government-funded irrigation program.

Mr Norman appeared in the Brisbane District Court on Monday charged with six counts of fraud by “dishonestly inducing the delivery of property valued over $30,000”, occurring between 2011 and 2016.

He pleaded guilty to all charges and is due to be sentenced on June 10.

Mr Norman’s co-accused, Stephen Alan Evans, had pleaded guilty to four similar fraud charges in April 2021.

These also relate to offences committed between 2011 and 2016 at Toobeah.

Mr Evans received a head sentence of four years and six months, suspended for an operational period of four years and five months after serving a period of nine months imprisonment.

Police investigation

The high-profile case first drew public attention in 2017, when police raided Norman Farming, the 18,000-hectare cropping enterprise where Mr Norman served as chief executive and Mr Evans was employed as the chief financial officer.

At the time, media reports indicated that both men faced court on fraud charges in 2018, though there is no public record confirming whether those proceedings were finalised.

It was alleged that the offences were connected to fraudulent conduct involving the federally-funded Healthy HeadWaters program.

The program was designed to increase the efficiency of water and irrigation projects in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Funding decisions and distribution was administered by state governments, in this case the Queensland Government.

It was revealed that Norman Farming received $19.2 million under the program for seven projects.

Police alleged that Mr Norman and Mr Evans altered standard farm expense invoices to make them appear as though they were related to work carried out under the government program.

Norman Farming sale

Almost a year before charges were laid, Norman Farming came to market, with expectations that it would make in excess of $100M.

It was revealed that the aggregation had been sold some time at the end of 2018 or early 2019 to Canadian-based investor Hancock Natural Resource Group (HNRG).

HNRG brought the largest section of the holding, the 12,850ha Kalanga Aggregation to market in mid-2021.

The Coulton family’s Morella Agriculture purchased the property in February 2022 for circa $80M.