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Promoter Andrew McManus escapes jail term
McManus, who with One World has brought dozens of major international acts to Australasia, will not serve time, despite admitting perverting the course of justice
By IQ on 03 Apr 2017
Andrew McManus will serve his 20-month sentence outside of prison
An Australian concert promoter who confessed to attempting to pervert the course of justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’ jail time, has escaped a prison sentence.
One World Entertainment founder Andrew McManus – who in August admitted the charge, which concerned the disputed ownership of a suitcase containing A$702,000 in cash – was on Friday sentenced to 20 months in prison, but will serve his sentence in the community, according to Sydney Morning Herald’s Patrick Begley.
Sydney district court judge Mark Williams ruled McManus had shown remorse for the crime and is unlikely to offend again.
McManus, who has promoted shows by major acts including Kiss, Fleetwood Mac, Aerosmith, Whitney Houston and The Beach Boys in Australia and New Zealand, was one of five people arrested in September following the discovery of the suitcase in a room at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney in 2011. In 2012 he told police the cash related to a business deal he had arranged for Owen Hanson, a “very good friend of a friend”, to secure a ZZ Top tour, but that he needed it back to fund a Lenny Kravitz tour. “In essence, I delivered back 700 grand I now need to borrow it again,” he said. “As quickly as possible.”
McManus said he lied about the source of the money, traced by police to an international drugs syndicate, in return for an underworld loan to fund a Lenny Kravitz tour
While McManus eventually claimed the money was his – “It’s not the proceeds of crime, it’s the proceeds of Andrew McManus… I gave someone 700 large, and you’ve found someone with 700 large. It’s my 700 large,” he said – police were previously told the occupant of the Hilton room, Sean Carolan, was minding it for his business partner, peptide entrepreneur Owen Hanson Jnr, and then that Hanson was investing it in Carolan’s weight-loss company.
McManus told the court on Friday he lied about the source of the money – which police traced to an international drugs syndicate – in return for an underworld loan to fund the Kravitz shows. At the time, he said, he was depressed and hooked on drink and drugs.
The leader of the drug ring, American Owen ‘O-Dog’ Hanson, was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year.
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