Malvern man Andrew Scott pleaded innocent but was found to have broken the law after presiding over the loss of $5 billion in Centro Properties' share value, or other people’s money. Scott has been fined $30,000 – in a court case that cost taxpayers and shareholders more than $3 million.

Warrnambool man Tyrone Lynch pleaded guilty to causing $5900 damage after he ran out of grog at his mum’s house, broke into the local Terang Mortlake Football Netball Club and took 30 cans of grog then went back to his mum’s and kept drinking. Lynch was sentenced earlier this year to 18 months in jail.

Andrew Scott has been fined $30,000, little more than 1% of his cash pay in the year Centro blew up.

There is an important distinction here: the Centro trial was a civil proceeding and the Warrnambool a criminal matter.

Nonetheless, the Warrnambool man might have done a little better in court, perhaps even as well as the Malvern man, had he had shareholders to fund his QCs.