HIGH-FLYING NSW art dealer Ronald Morris Coles had a reputation for influence, mixing with celebrities and spending big at the races.
His clients could not have imagined Coles was also running a Ponzi-style scheme that his lawyer now agrees will certainly land him in prison.
Wearing dark slacks and a jumper, he pleaded guilty on Thursday to 15 counts of fraud that lost his victims nearly $6 million.
"My client knows he's going to jail," counsel Greg Hoare told Parramatta District Court.
An agreed fact sheet tendered to the court shows Coles agreed to buy, sell and manage valuable works by celebrated Australian artists - among them Norman Lindsay, Albert Namatjira, Arthur Streeton, Brett Whiteley and Arthur Boyd - for clients in the mid-to-late 2000s.
Coles was convicted of using a single painting as surety for multiple loans, and selling single works several times over.
On one occasion he agreed to manage a $45,000 Norman Lindsay watercolour for a client, but instead traded it to another client in return for two artworks.
A year later, in 2006, he told the original owner he "should have a buyer for $85,000 in the next month".
The money never came, but it would be another three years before police pounced.
On January 2009, raids on a gallery, trucks and the homes of Coles' stepchildren Sage Carver and Colin Foster uncovered 413 artworks, including several of "little value", according to the agreed fact sheet.
Days later, on January 28, Coles and his wife Jan were declared bankrupt.
Coles was released on bail on Thursday but told not to leave the state.
He'll appear at Sydney District Court on October 17 for sentencing.
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