R v Siddiqui [2026] NSWDC 331

R v Siddiqui [2026] NSWDC 331 concerned sentencing for two offences of dishonestly using a director’s position contrary to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), with a further offence taken into account. Siddiqui diverted about $1.39 million owed to EFSOL into an account he controlled and transferred it for unrelated purposes while knowing the company was in acute financial distress. The key issue was whether anything short of imprisonment could adequately punish and denounce the deliberate breach of trust. After allowing for guilty pleas, remorse, other mitigating factors and totality, Anderson SC DCJ convicted Siddiqui and imposed six years and six months’ imprisonment, with a three-year-and-three-month non-parole period.