A trusted mine manager who betrayed his mentor and boss in a significant gold swindle has been found liable to repay him, with a judge rejecting implausible defence claims at trial.
FMR Investments launched Supreme Court civil action against Patrick Rhyan Keogh in 2023, months after a District Court jury in Kalgoorlie acquitted the former Gordon Sirdar gold mine and Greenfields Mill operations chief of related criminal charges.
Justice Alain Musikanth described in his judgment last week how Mr Keogh rocketed through the ranks, despite not being qualified, because company founder Peter Bartlett believed he had the ability to be that person.
The well-known WA mining entrepreneur, who also started underground mining firm Barminco, had known Mr Keogh's father for decades and treated his son as a protégé, intending to train him to take over running FMR. They became close, going fishing and flying together on Mr Bartlett's plane.
Mr Keogh was even entrusted with driving unrefined gold to his employer's Applecross home, where the executive accumulated a whopping 100-120kg that his lieutenant eventually transported back to the Goldfields for milling.
But in March 2020, Mr Keogh was fired after 11 years with the private company, over a controversy involving two trucks he had bought and then leased back to FMR through Pekeri Contracting, at market rates.
It was only later, after detectives from the gold stealing detection unit paid a visit, that Mr Bartlett discovered Mr Keogh had raided the mine's gold-bearing tailings stockpile and claimed his boss had simply told him he could have it.
At trial, Mr Keogh claimed that he asked Mr Bartlett on a rare site visit in May 2013, as he pointed to the stockpile: Pete, given everything I've been doing for you recently, can I have that? Mr Keogh testified that Mr Bartlett replied: You're a bit f...ing cheeky, Paddy, but yes, OK.
Mr Bartlett denied the conversation ever took place, recalling he had flown from Perth to Kalgoorlie that day to attend to renovations at Debernales Tavern, which he part owned.
It wasn't until December 2018 that Mr Keogh began processing ore from the stockpile in a combined milling agreement with the facility's then manager, the late Christopher Burns. Together, they processed a massive 16,931 tonnes, with Mr Burns contributing ore from his Aqua Alluvial outfit.
Mr Keogh pocketed $590,311 months later. He also took $288,200 in project management fees invoiced by Pekeri, paid by FMR, but did not perform the work.
The judge found Mr Keogh to be an unreliable and most unsatisfactory witness whose evidence was internally contradictory, inconsistent with objective evidence and inherently implausible.
I find that the stockpile authorisation was never given and that no conversation took place between Mr Keogh and Mr Bartlett at the mill, Justice Musikanth said, finding FMR entitled to compensation totalling $878,511.
FMR's barrister Steven Penglis told The West Australian the company would now seek formal orders for the amounts in the judgment and costs.
