The prosecution in the case of whisky distillery founder Keith Batt, 64, has told Hobart’s Supreme Court the trial will go “for months”.
Mr Batt is charged with more than 700 criminal offences, including 622 counts of fraud, 66 counts of stealing and 48 counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage.
Last year, he pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Mr Batt was the founder of Nant Distillery at Bothwell, in Tasmania’s central highlands.
The alleged scheme involved investors purchasing barrels of whisky after production began, with Nant promising to buy the barrels back from investors when they matured.
Keith Batt has pleaded not guilty. (X: Keith Batt)
It is alleged that many barrels were not filled with whisky, and that whisky was taken from barrels.
The charges range from 2007 to 2016, and span a 250-page document, seen by the ABC, covering $586,680 in alleged offending.
In March this year, the prosecution asked for six weeks to review “extensive” material.
The matter returned to court today, with Mr Batt attending via telephone.
The prosecution told Associate Justice Michael Daly that the case has a brief of 55 lever-arch folders and would require more time to file the material.
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Associate Justice Daly requested an estimate of the projected trial duration to get “a sense of the size of the undertaking”.
The prosecution said the trial will be months-long and had been estimated to take between three to six months.
Associate Justice Daly said he would make a direction that the papers are not to be filed in “hard copy, if avoidable”, given the volume of material.
He bailed Mr Batt to reappear in the Supreme Court on February 16.
