Former mayor has gone from 'rooster to feather duster'
A former Queensland mayor has gone from a "rooster to a feather duster" after being charged by the state's corruption watchdog, a court has heard.
Luke Smith, 53, may leave the state to rebuild his life once a five-year legal case against him is finalised, his barrister said.
The former Logan City Council mayor, whose full name is Timothy Luke Smith, was charged in 2018 following a Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission probe.
Smith has pleaded guilty to receipt of a secret commission, failing to update his register of interests and misconduct in public office.
All of the offences occurred while he was Logan mayor.
He will be sentenced by Judge David Kent in Brisbane District Court on Friday.
His barrister detailed how Smith's life had changed since the CCC charges.
Smith is "teetering on the brink of bankruptcy" after his family home was sold and his marriage failed.
He has alcohol and mental health issues and currently lives at his brother's house.
After holding a "high office", Smith has worked as a car detailer and security officer.
"He's really gone from, I'll use the expression, rooster to a feather duster," his barrister Jeffrey Hunter said at Thursday's sentencing hearing.
"This has been personally catastrophic for him."
Mr Hunter said he had noticed a marked shift in Smith with the long-running legal matter now approaching an end, but noted that moving on may involve his client leaving the state.
Regarding the secret commission charge, crown prosecutor Mark Green said Smith "acted corruptly" when he received a luxury $95,000, 7.5m boat from a political donor in 2016.
The donor was a director of SKL Cables, which had submitted a development application to Logan Council for a 15-storey building at Springwood.
Smith regularly met with SKL directors discussing the development which had to overcome the council's building height restriction of 10 storeys.
In August 2016, Smith asked an SKL director whether he could buy a colleague's boat and was told he could "use it" but not purchase it.
The boat was later transferred over to Smith, who paid insurance, repairs and storage for the vessel.
Smith sold the boat for $39,000.
"The defendant did not pay a purchase price for the boat at any stage before the boat was sold," Mr Green said.
Smith never declared the boat on his register of interests as required.
After giving evidence at a June 2017 CCC hearing into councillor misconduct allegations, Smith rang an SKL director and told them he could no longer be involved in "all this", Mr Green said.
Mr Green said Smith acted corruptly in receiving the boat as it would "show favour" to SKL.
However, he said it was accepted that Smith's actions did not influence the outcome of the development application - which did not proceed - or any other council business.
The misconduct charge relates to Smith interfering in the recruitment of Logan Council director Jane Frawley in 2017, the court heard.
