Stiliani Hagicostas had Burnside home loan fraud charge withdrawn in court
A woman accused of an elaborate home loan fraud had her charge dropped, while her partner, their accountant, and property developer will argue theirs should be thrown out too.
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A Burnside woman had her $850,000 fraud charge dismissed in court, while her partner will argue his charge should also be thrown out, a court has heard.
Stiliani Natalie Hagicostas, 31, had her dishonestly dealing with document charge withdrawn in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Her partner Vince Roman Sorrenti, 36, accountant David Bruno Demasi, 53, property developer Antonio Guiseppe Luvera, 52, and loan agent Kristan Lewis Esposito, 41, are accused of being involved in the scam.
A prosecutor told the court they would be tendering no evidence against Ms Hagicostas and withdrew her charge.
The court heard Mr Demasi, Mr Sorrenti, and Mr Luvera would argue they had no case to answer.
The court previously heard Ms Hagicostas and her de facto partner, Mr Sorrenti, lodged a loan application with the Commonwealth Bank on April 1, 2021.
“$850,000 was sought by Hagicostas to finance the purchase of a property at Burnside which was being sold by Antonia Luvera, a property developer,” the prosecutor said.
“As a result of a police telephone intercepts conducted on Sorrenti and emails between some of the parties, it is alleged that two documents presented to the Commonwealth Bank as part of the loan application had either been fabricated (a pay slip) or altered (a contract for sale) to accommodate the loan criteria of the Commonwealth Bank.
“It is alleged that Hagicostas’ pay slip had been fabricated to portray that she had been an employee of West Central boxing gym since July 1, 2020 and had an annual salary of $125,000 when neither of those facts were true,” the prosecutor said.
The court heard telephone intercepts between Mr Sorrenti, Mr Esposito and accountant Mr Demasi were involved in discussions about needing to produce those documents to the bank.
“The pay slip was then provided by Demasi as part of the loan application,” the prosecutor said.
The prosecution alleged Ms Hagicostas and Mr Luvera signed the contract of sale of the property with an execution date backdated from April 9, 2021 to March 9, 2021 so it would fall outside a 12-month loan approval window the Commonwealth Bank had for properties.
“Telephone intercept material shows that Sorrenti, Esposito and Luvera were involved in discussions surrounding the need to backdate the contract of sale and Luvera then provided the contract with the backdated date,” the prosecutor alleged.
Mr Sorrenti, of Burnside, Mr Esposito, of Newton, Mr Demasi, of Henley Beach and Mr Luvera, of Tennyson, are all charged with dishonestly dealing with documents.
Marie Shaw KC, for Mr Sorrenti, told the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday their argument about why his charge should be dismissed would be “relatively succinct”.
“Because we say there’s no evidence against us,” she said.
Michael Abbott QC, for Mr Demasi, told the court their argument would revolve around what an accountant is allowed to do with the books of the company in a financial year period.
Magistrate John Wells adjourned the group’s charges until next month for no case to answer submissions, ahead of entering any pleas.
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