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THE Tax Practitioners' Board is remaining tight-lipped about the future of East Maitland accountant Michael Unicomb after he pleaded guilty last month to dishonestly gaining a financial advantage by deception. Unicomb will be sentenced in June after admitting in Newcastle District Court to using an elderly client to secure a $1.16 million bank loan and diverting funds to himself and an associate. The Newcastle Herald can reveal that several clients of Unicomb's made complaints to the Tax Practitioners' Board (TPB) back in 2014, but no action was taken. The controversial tax agent is still listed on the board's website as a registered tax agent. When contacted by the Newcastle Herald about Unicomb, a spokesman for the TPB said he was unable to comment. He said registered tax agents must comply with a professional code of conduct outlined in the Tax Agents' Services Act (TASA). "If the TPB finds, after investigating the conduct of a tax practitioner, that they have breached the code, it may impose an administrative sanction on the practitioner," the spokesman said. "These sanctions are set out in the TASA and range from a caution to termination of registration. The TPB takes such conduct that breaches the TASA, particularly where it relates to fraud and dishonesty very seriously." Unicomb, of East Maitland's Michael Unicomb and Associates, admitted to submitting false information to Westpac Bank to secure a loan for his client David Dixon, a self-funded retiree from Branxton, who died in 2019. According to the agreed statement of facts, Unicomb told Mr Dixon he could arrange a personal loan with Westpac to fund a tourist development on land in the Hunter Valley vineyards at Lovedale. Unicomb completed an application for the $1.16 million loan, indicating the money would be used for the "purchase of the Lovedale property as a residence for Mr Dixon". He also falsely told Westpac that Mr Dixon was working full-time as a senior engineer earning $285,200 a year, received $7083 from trust distributions each month, had $783,200 in super and owned 30 stud Arabian ponies valued at $250,000. The loan was drawn down in December 2010 and $141,535 was transferred to a company owned by Unicomb and his wife called Greenhills Securities. A further $120,000 was paid to ICA (South Australia) and $120,000 to Vangory Holdings, companies operated by Gregory Huxley, an associate of Unicomb's. In 2010, the Newcastle Herald reported that Unicomb was trying to stave off bankruptcy, hoping creditors owed more than $40 million would accept less than one cent in the dollar. In a letter to creditors, insolvency firm McLeod and Associates listed 37 unsecured creditors allegedly owed nearly $45 million. The letter stated that if creditors agreed to Mr Unicomb's proposed "personal insolvency agreement" a "third party", Mr Dixon, would provide $50,000 to be divided among creditors. Mr Dixon was listed in the letter as an unsecured creditor, owed about $1 million. Unicomb was trying to avoid being forced into bankruptcy so he could continue practising as an accountant. Creditors who have spoke to the Newcastle Herald in 2010 complained that the amounts owed to them appeared to have been understated, possibly affecting their voting rights. Unicomb listed family members and business associates among his creditors. In 2008, the Newcastle Herald reported that an elderly Hunter dairy farming couple who used Unicomb as their accountant had been saved from losing their property and life savings by a NSW Supreme Court decision. Judge Hamilton stated in a written decision that Dallas and Juliet Clarke, of Wallalong, had been led or pressured by Unicomb "into entering, for his own purposes, into two disadvantageous transactions" totalling more than $2 million with financiers. The judge set aside mortgages and guarantees entered by the couple, declaring that Unicomb, "a long-standing and trusted adviser and personal friend", had abused the couple's trust. A month later, the Herald reported on a different court matter where a judge accused Unicomb of abusing the trust of another client and leading them into bad transactions for his own purposes. Suzanne Cairns, 47, of Gillieston Heights, told the Supreme Court her husband, Peter, had been unable to exercise normal judgement during his final months because of intense pain and strong medication he was taking for his terminal bowel cancer. Three months before his death in March 2005 from complications related to his cancer, Mr Cairns borrowed $200,000 from a high-interest lender and authorised payment of funds to Unicomb's trust account. The three-month loan from finance company Galadriel Lothlorien was not repaid in time and reverted to punitive interest rates. Mrs Cairns said she had to sell properties to raise $377,000 to pay out the loan in 2006. Unicomb swore an affidavit stating that the $200,000 Mr Cairns borrowed just before his death went to his long-time friend and business partner Warren Turner in an attempt to secure a property in South Australia. But Mr Turner told The Herald at the time he did not receive the money, although he agreed it was used for the South Australian property venture. The funds represented Unicomb's share of the investment, Mr Turner said. IN OTHER NEWS: Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. 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