Harry Omeros bankrupted after unpaid $5m tax bill

The heir to a popular upmarket Gold Coast restaurant business has been bankrupted after he failed to pay over $5 million in taxes.

Harry Omeros at a previous court appearance

THE heir to a popular upmarket Gold Coast restaurant business has been bankrupted after he failed to pay $5.2 million in taxes.

Harry Omeros, 31, a former restaurateur and father of two from Hope Island, had his estate officially sequestrated last Thursday on the order of Federal Circuit Court registrar Katie Lynch.

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The Australian Taxation Office last year sued him in the Brisbane Supreme Court, alleging he owed taxes for the financial years between 2011 and 2016.

Mr Omeros — who is a member of the clan behind the Marina Mirage’s Omeros Bros seafood restaurant and a former owner of Oceans by Omeros in Surfers Paradise — did not file a notice of intention to defend the Supreme Court case, and he was ordered to pay $5.16 million on March 26.

When he failed to pay, the ATO took him to the Federal Circuit Court to bankrupt him.

The court heard that process servers tried to slap Mr Omeros with demands for payment, but he was impossible to track down in person at his parents’ house or at another Paradise Point home, or through his Gold Coast accountant, forcing the ATO to ask the Supreme Court to allow them to post the documents to him.

Mr Omeros’ mother told a process server hired by the ATO she had severed all connections with her son, and was unaware of where he was residing and had no contact with him at all, the court heard.

Helen Omeros, 58, is alleged to have made the comments to process server Ross Williams from Probe Group on August 16, 2017, when Mr Williams went to the $3.5 million waterfront Sovereign Island trophy home owned by Harry’s father Nick, 66, to serve court documents.

The palatial Knightsbridge Parade address was listed on the returning passenger card Mr Omeros sumbitted to immigration when returning from trip to China with his partner Samantha Sleep, the court heard.

Mr Omeros, who called himself a building industry worker on the passenger card, would not meet Mr Williams to be served with the documents when phoned by him, the court heard.

The ATO submitted to the Supreme Court that Harry Omeros was either seeking to evade service or was at least unco-operative with attempts to meet with process servers.

In a separate criminal case due in Southport District Court on March 14, Harry Omeros is also awaiting trial for a boiler-room fraud.

Police allege he fleeced at least $400,000 from 15 victims through cold-call schemes that offered investments in the sharemarket, binary trading, sports betting, property and eBay businesses.

He was arrested in his Southport office in September 2016 and charged with two counts of fraud.

More charges were added and he now faces five fraud charges and no trial date has been set.

The Federal Circuit Court has appointed corporate undertaker Louisa Sijabat as Mr Omeros’ bankruptcy trustee.

The ATO is entitled to $4225 in court costs, Registrar Lynch ordered.