Founder of Brisbane's Fit Village looks to change guilty plea in fraud case

Jacob 'Jake' Henley, founder of the now closed Fit Village gym in the Brisbane suburb of Paddington, has made in surprise move in Court case over a fraud in excess of $100,000 of which he has been accused.

As reported by Brisbane's The Courier-Mail, Henley, who last year pleaded guilty to the charge, is now seeking to vacate his guilty plea.

Scheduled to have been sentenced on Thursday, Henley failed to appear in the Court.

Brisbane’s District Court heard that sentencing had been adjourned on a number of occasions previously.

On Wednesday, the Court registry received correspondence from Henley that he was seeking an application to vacate his guilty plea and asked the sentence be delisted and mentioned later this month.

Crown prosecutor Cameron Wilkins suggested one option could be to issue a warrant to lie at the registry for 24 hours.

However, Judge Carl Heaton said he had difficulty with that because the Toowoomba based Henley was self-represented.

Judge Heaton advised "he may not have appreciated that simply sending a letter through to the registry is not enough to have a matter adjourned off.

“It seems that there’s little utility in trying to force him on at this point.

“If he wants to engage legal representatives and advance an argument that his plea of guilty should be vacated then that needs to be done on material.”

The matter has been adjourned.

Described as a 'health community' with a gym, yoga, Pilates, childcare, a restaurant and a health food store, Fit Village Paddington closed in late 2020, reportedly as a result on unpaid rent and with a number of tradespeople unpaid over building work at the gym.

In 2021, Henley has been banned from managing corporations for three years as a result of nine of his companies collapsing in 2017 owing over $13.5 million.