Rod Petricevic sentenced to six and a half years jail

Former Bridgecorp director Rod Petricevic has been sentenced to six and a half years in jail.

The Crown was calling for at least eight years and the defence had hoped to restrict the sentence to six.

Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey says the sentence is the longest he can remember for this type of offence, but Petricevic showed no remorse.

"How could there be when there was no acknowledgement of the offending itself. The only remorse shown was effectively for people having lost money for which he didn't take responsibility."

In court, Mr Dickey argued the offending by Bridgecorp investors was the pinnacle of market fraud, and a sentence needed to reflect that.

In summing up, Justice Venning said seven and a half years was adequate but he made modest adjustments to that because of different factors involved in the case.

Among them were the fact Petricevic has no earlier convictions, and had been subject to a personal assault.

Justice Venning says while he can understand the frustrations people felt with Petricevic, those activities cannot be condoned, or ignored.

Petricevic had been found guilty of 18 charges under the Crimes Act, Securities Act and Companies Act. The judge said the Crimes Act were the most serious charges. 

Outside court, Mr Dickey says he's happy with the sentence, and hopes it sends a clear message to other finance companies that if they mislead the public, they will be sent to jail.

Bridgecorp collapsed in 2007 owing its 14,000 investors $459 million.