A man who won a bravery award for rescuing an elderly woman from her burning home has admitted defrauding his employer of almost $500,000 dollars.
Nick Karagiannis, a 44-year-old father-of-three, has pleaded guilty to charges related to manipulation of prices of trade-in vehicles at car dealer Suttons.
It is a marked fall from grace for the man who appeared at NSW Government House alongside state Governor Margaret Beazley in 2021 to accept a Commendation for Brave Conduct; the fourth-highest honour among ‘s Bravery Decorations.
Karagiannis earned the award by helping 72-year-old Trena Kerakoski escape her burning home at Homebush in Sydney’s inner west in 2014.
Karagiannis was subsequently praised online for his actions and gave inspirational speeches about his charitable works to schoolchildren.
He told The Greek Herald in 2021 he noticed the burning house while returning to his workplace and raced to rescue the elderly woman.
‘I knew the residents who lived there – there was the grandma, grandpa, daughter and granddaughter. I saw the grandma grab a garden hose and run back into the house in an attempt to put out the flames,’ he told the publication.
‘So I ran in after her and quickly pulled her to safety just one minute before the roof of the house came in.’
But now his role in scamming his former employer Suttons out of nearly $500,000 has been revealed in the NSW District Court.
As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, while working as general manager with Suttons Motor Group at Homebush, Karagiannis caused a financial disadvantage of $475,675 to the company between 2016 and 2019 when he began allowing customers to pay for cars via his personal bank account.
In agreed facts tendered to the court, Karagiannis would secure new car sales by paying a higher price to customers for trade-ins on their used cars. He then attempted to hide the losses by ‘juggling’ customers’ money and his own funds to cover the shortfall through his personal account.
While Karagiannis later reimbursed Suttons, he failed to keep up with repayments for three years until the discrepancy was noticed by the company.
A NSW Police investigation then found 114 registration numbers matching 179 deposits into Karagiannis’ personal account, for a total of about $2.5million.
Over the three years Karagiannis paid $2million to Suttons but still owed $475,675 when the practice was discovered.
The court heard an excerpt of a phone interview from March 2019 where the car dealer’s managing director Craig Sutton asked Karagiannis who customers had been paying.
He told his boss that customers had been transferring money into his account or giving him cheques.
‘So I paid for other cars with it, so I’ve been juggling since July ’17,’ Karagiannis said, assuring Mr Sutton the money would be repaid on receipt of a loan.
The managing director told him customers were under the false impression they were paying the company’s account.
Karagiannis replied that ‘whether it was mine or yours, they didn’t really care, they trusted me’.
Agreed facts tendered in court state that Karagiannis did not ‘engage in the scheme for his personal enrichment’, but that he was deceptive.
In a police interview he alleged the company’s accounts department knew of his actions, and said that while he gained no financial advantage from the practice, he did owe the outstanding money.
Karagiannis pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception. He will be sentenced in November.