A Queensland businessman ripped off creditors by taking $550,000 from his sinking transport company to give to his son as "back pay".
Edward Harold Pye, 54, avoided jail in Brisbane District Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to two counts of breaching his duties while sole director of ERH Transport Services.
After the company went liquidation in 2014, Pye transferred the money into a trust for his son Ben, who was employed by the company as a 17-year-old on a $175,000-a-year contract three years earlier.
But because Ben Pye was actually paid "a far more modest salary" than stated in his contract, Pye saw it fit to label the payment "back pay", crown prosecutor Ben Power said.
Pye also took another $25,000 out of the Lockyer Valley-based company and put it into a trust of which he was the beneficiary.
He paid back the money more than a year later at liquidators' request, the court heard.
He was handed a two-year jail sentence but walked free from court on a three-year good behaviour bond.
"It's not suggested this was some sort of long-term fraud," Mr Power said.
"But it is the case, by his actions for a period of time, the creditors were deprived of their money."
Australian Associated Press