Former CA gets membership revoked following ‘brazen’ criminal offences

On 15 October 2025, CA ANZ terminated the membership of Lyndon Allen Kingston, former credit union CEO and APRA staffer, and ordered him to pay $17,845 in legal costs after he was found guilty of serious criminal offences.

Kingston was the former director and CEO of Bananacoast Community Credit Union Limited (BCU). In November 2024, he was charged by ASIC for dishonestly using his position with the intention of gaining an advantage and providing misleading information to an auditor.

The Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) at CA ANZ found that it was appropriate to terminate Kingston’s membership based on his dishonest conduct.

“The Member’s dishonesty and the lack of respect to the authority of the regulatory body are at the heart of the offences. The findings of guilt for the offences by the Court and the subsequent criminal sentence illustrates a clear and obvious seriousness at hand,” the PCC’s submission read.

“The investigation showcases a period of consistent dishonesty over an extended period of time. Between 2015 and 2017 the member acted against the public’s expectation of the profession and lacked the necessary level of competence and integrity by falsifying documents and deceiving APRA.”

According to ASIC, between December 2015 and August 2017, Kingston used his position to unlawfully receive payments from two BCU contractors without board approval, and provided false and misleading information to the auditor of BCU in a bid to conceal those payments.

He was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment in December 2024, with six months to be served in prison and the remaining 12 out on condition of good behaviour. Kingston appealed against the conviction, which was dismissed in May 2025.

CA ANZ said its hearing had proceeded in the absence of Kingston, and noted he did not respond to various attempts to reach him via email and post.

In coming to its decision to terminate Kingston’s membership, CA ANZ said that he had been found guilty of offences which could discredit him, CA ANZ and the broader accounting profession.

It noted that the court had described Kingston’s conduct as “brazen” and “dishonest,” and that allowing him to remain a CA ANZ member could undermine public confidence in the institution.

“The trial judge observed that the appellant’s dishonest conduct in respect of the two contracts was undertaken in circumstances where the appellant knew that he was in a position of trust and exploited that position,” documents from the Supreme Court of Queensland read.

“There was an element of brazenness in that conduct, which included a continuation of the dishonesty, by intentionally giving the credit union’s auditors misleading documentation, thereby continuing to disguise the true nature of his dishonest offending in relation to those arrangements.”