RENT RECORDS: Company records of Gold Coast Titans charity Titans 4 Tomorrow have been laid bare - including rent payments for space in the Centre of Excellence
A GOLD Coast Titans charity was paying the struggling club rent of almost $750,000 a year at the same time it was receiving $1.5 million of taxpayers’ money.
The rent for space at the Titans’ ill-fated Centre of Excellence peaked at $748,000 in 2011 before dropping to just $88,000 last year – despite Titans 4 Tomorrow increasing its programs tenfold.
T4T has 35 staff. It would not say how many staff were employed when it was paying the club $748,000 for office space at Robina.
A Bulletin search into company records also found:
- The organisation sought three loans - one unsecured of $350,000, another secured of $347,359, and one in 2013 from Gold Coast Titans Pty Ltd for $417,392.
- Received $2.3 million in Federal Government funding in 2013 and $1.35 million in 2012, and generated more than $3.5 million in outside sponsorship for that period.
- As of October 2013, had more than $1.5 million in liabilities
- Paid $370,000 and $237,000 in consultancy fees over two years
- Spent up to $45,000 each for luxury cars.
Managing director and organisation founder Michael Searle was unavailable for comment, referring the Bulletin’s questions to chairman Joshua Creamer.
Mr Creamer, who only became a T4T director late last year, defended the transactions, saying all loans, excluding motor vehicle finance, had been repaid in full.
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Since October 2013, the company’s liabilities had been reduced by $700,000, he said.
“Titans 4 Tomorrow Ltd directors commissioned a leading independent expert audit firm, Vincent’s Chartered Accountants, to undertake two independent audit reviews in 2013 and again in 2014 after the departure of senior management from the Gold Coast Titans to ensure the former finance staff and club management had adopted a commercial approach to transfer pricing between the entities,” Mr Creamer said.
“This reasonableness review examined transactions between Titans and Titans 4 Tomorrow for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 and reviewed the costs and charges between the non-profit entity Titans 4 Tomorrow and the Gold Coast Titans. That report definitively concluded without exception or caveat that all transactions between the entities were reasonable and commercial.”
T4T was created in May 2008 to “provide services and assistance to people in need of relief including indigenous people living in remote areas within Australia”.
An NRL investigation into Gold Coast Titans’ financial affairs will scrutinise transactions for related bodies such as T4T.
Mr Searle, a major shareholder and board member of the Titans until his resignation this week, previously indicated he was “happy to fully comply with the NRL investigation”.
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The records indicate T4T has increased its cash reserves to almost $300,000 after the available funds dropped to about $36,000 the previous year.
As the Titans property arm was bleeding with debts of up to $25 million in mid-2012 after legal disputes surrounding the building of the club’s Centre of Excellence headquarters at Robina, T4T provided rental payments of $748,381 in rent in 2011 and $412,765 in 2012.
These payments dropped to $88,655 last year.
T4T maintains it is separate from the club but documents show senior Titans employees were directors.
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