Fraud investigation hits troubled caravan retailer Brisbane RVs

THE collapse of one of Brisbane’s biggest recreational vehicle dealers just got messier with a former employee accused of defrauding the company of half a million dollars.

Brisbane RVs called in adminstrators earlier this month.

FRAUD CHARGES

THE collapse of one of Brisbane’s biggest recreational vehicle dealers just got messier with a former employee accused of defrauding the company of half a million dollars.

Andrea McCone, who is believed to have worked for Brisbane RVs for about a decade, is facing multiple counts of fraud in relation to Brisbane RVs.

The matter is currently before the Redcliffe Magistrates Court with a review planned for May 1. Brisbane RVs, which was the trading name for a company called BJ Saggers Investments, operated for about 15 years selling new and used caravans and motor homes from its Burpengary sales yard.

Administrators Worrells were called in to take control of the beleaguered company last week with creditors owed an estimated $4 million. That includes an estimated $330,000 owed to employees, $150,000 to the ATO and $550,000 to customers who had paid deposits on vans.

Caravan dealer Brisbane RV hits rocky road, calls in administrators Worrells

A secured creditor is owed several million.

Worrells partner Raj Khatri says he could not comment on the specifics of the case before the courts but the alleged fraud could have been a contributing factor in the company’s financial problems along with increasing competition.

The chance of recovering any of the money allegedly defrauded was unknown. Khatri says a creditors meeting was planned for next Wednesday where the future of the company will be discussed.

ROCKY ROAD

FRAUD allegations aside the tribulations facing Brisbane RVs begs the question of whether the boil is coming off the previously buoyant caravan industry.

Caravan and camping is now a multi-billion dollar industry driven not only by grey nomads but young families seeking a holiday on the road.

But there are increasing signs that a larger number of companies in the sector are chasing a diminishing amount of dollars. Aussie Adventure Caravans Group, which operates in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, went into voluntary administration last month. The group runs retail businesses including Aussie Adventure Caravans, Downunder RV Australia, Townsville RV and Coffs Harbour RVS.

SAINTLY PROGRESS

BRISBANE energy entrepreneur Trevor St Baker hosted an exclusive event at the Museum of Brisbane last night to celebrate his fund’s multimillion-dollar investments.

Illustration of Trevor St Baker by Brett Lethbridge.

City Beat spies spotted designers Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson, Corporate Travel Management chairman Tony Bellas and SAS Group’s Larry Anthony at the gala event. The St Baker Energy Innovation Fund’s investments include Tritium, the developer and manufacturer of electric vehicle fast chargers, and Fast Cities, which is building a national ultra-fast electric vehicle charging network.

Readers will recall that the Tesla-driving St Baker has been involved in Queensland’s power sector since the 1970s and as a senior bureaucrat he helped reform the state’s moribund electricity network as it moved from an agrarian-based economy to an industrial one. He later went on to found ERM, Australia’s fourth-largest power retailer. Now as the energy sector faces its biggest shake-up since the invention of the electric light bulb he is leading the charge into renewable technologies.

WHAT A GAS

SENEX Energy boss Ian Davies has weighed into the debate over the natural gas shortage in New South Wales. The head of the Brisbane-based company told a conference yesterday that the New South Wales Opposition’s announcement that it would stop the Narrabri gas project, regardless of an independent review’s findings, was “economic and social vandalism on a grand scale.” “They’re prepared to put at risk not only supply of potentially half the state’s gas needs, but hundreds of jobs in regional NSW and the associated benefits for small businesses and communities,” Davies thundered. Take that!