Melissa Caddick’s parents fight to keep Edgecliff home from creditors

As liquidators add up the value of Sydney fraudster Melissa Caddick’s assets, her parents are desperate to protect their home from being sold off.

The parents of alleged fraudster Melissa Caddick are trying to stake a claim on their own apartment to avoid becoming homeless if it is seized by her creditors.

Barbara and Ted Grimley have been living in the penthouse apartment in Edgecliff since they sold their home in Connells Point in Sydney’s south for $1.55m in 2017.

It is understood they believed they significantly contributed to the purchase of the $2.55m unit in Sydney’s east with the proceeds of the Connells Point sale.

However, the unit was purchased under the name of their daughter, who has been accused of embezzling more than $25m of clients’ funds through her finance firm, Maliver.

Melissa Caddick’s parents are fighting to keep their Edgecliff unit.

As a result, the Ocean St unit is in a pool of luxury assets that could be sold off as liquidators figure out how to recoup some money for Ms Caddick’s hoodwinked investors.

Liquidators have also placed caveats on the Edgecliff apartment and Ms Caddick’s own home in Dover Heights, which she bought for $6.2m in 2014.

Ms Caddick disappeared on November 12, the day after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission raided her Dover Heights mansion.

The unit block where Melissa Caddick's parents Barbara and Ted Grimley live.

Inside Barbara and Ted Grimley’s multimillion-dollar apartment.

ASIC had been tipped off that Ms Caddick was operating her finance firm, Maliver, using someone else’s Australian financial services licence.

The investigation snowballed from there with ­allegations Ms Caddick used her clients’ money as her own and splashed it on luxury holidays, designer clothing, mortgage repayments and art.

She created bogus share trading statements to make her clients believe they were earning huge returns but the money was never invested.

Mystery and conspiracy theories surrounded the mother-of-one’s disappearance until her decomposed foot, inside a running shoe, washed up on a beach on the NSW far south coast in late February.

Police suspect Ms Caddick’s body may have entered the ocean in Dover Heights and floated south.

The issue of Ms Caddick’s estate is still playing out in the Federal Court, with dozens of investors coming forward.

Between December and last month, Ms Caddick’s elderly parents placed three caveats over their apartment in Edgecliff to stop it being sold under their noses.

The Grimleys claim in the caveat that they contributed to part of the purchase price for the Ocean St apartment when Ms Caddick bought it and therefore have an interest.

Ms Caddick’s brother, Adam Grimley, has also been staying in the apartment. There is no suggestion either her parents or Mr Grimley knew anything about her alleged fraud.

Mr and Mrs Grimley moved to be closer to their daughter, family friends said.

ASIC advised at the last court hearing that it was assessing whether receivers could be appointed to realise the assets in Ms Caddick’s name. The case returns to court on April 7.

Originally published as Melissa Caddick’s parents fight to keep Edgecliff home from creditors