Drugs made me do it, says conman Brian John Kelly

A SLICK conman who preyed on mum and dad investors has been dubbed “Queensland’s Wolf of Wall Street” by police.

Meet our own Wolf of Wall Street

A SLICK conman who preyed on mum and dad investors to pay for a raging drug habit, designer jewellery and trips around the world has been dubbed “Queensland’s Wolf of Wall St” by police.

The Courier-Mail can reveal Brian John Kelly, who was last week jailed for eight years for fraud and money laundering, is accused of fleecing retirees and other investors for years in a series of scams.

Brian John Kelly once flew a helicopter to Toowoomba to take a girlfriend to her graduation.

Leading an extravagant lifestyle, the former chef and trainee pilot once flew a helicopter from Brisbane to Toowoomba to take a girlfriend to her graduation ceremony.

He also travelled first-class to South Africa with a woman only a week after they met, but told a court he pulled his scams because he had a $1000-a-day “coke” and speed habit. Kelly’s alleged long history of fraud can be revealed after he was last week jailed by the Supreme Court in Brisbane for defrauding $1.3 million from about 40 victims in a scam that also involved outlaw bikies.

Many more people may have fallen victim, with court documents revealing Kelly was linked to scams as far back as 2008 under myriad company names.

“Kelly loved ‘the sell’. He is Queensland’s Jordan Belfort,” one of the lead detectives on the case wrote in an email to prosecutors ahead of Kelly’s bail hearing last year.

“I would submit that being a professional conman, in the style of (Belfort) or Frank (Abagnale) of Catch Me If You Can fame, is not something you just shake off, but it becomes part of your DNA.”

Kelly did not care about the pain he inflicted and would “continue to cause ordinary, decent, hardworking Australians” financial hardship if granted bail, the detective wrote.

“Any person that can smile and fleece retirees of their life savings has no … social conscience. Kelly is a highly experienced manipulator of people. He has become very successful at lying and deceiving people into giving him their life savings.

“He has a high level of skill in adopting other persons’ identity for the purpose of committing criminal offences. He has very strong connections to Criminal Motorcycle Gangs and organised crime in Queensland and Melbourne.”

Kelly, 36, habitually wore diamond earrings and a gold chain but for meetings dressed the part of a businessman.

He bought and restored a bright pink chopper motorcycle and showered girlfriends with jewellery from Louis Vuitton and Tiffany.

He bought and restored a bright pink chopper motorcycle and showered girlfriends with jewellery from Louis Vuitton and Tiffany.

Police say he had also bought a house at Banora Point on the Gold Coast, a Mercedes and splashed money on fancy clothes.

Travel records show the unemployed Kelly — who had not lodged a tax return since 2008 — made trips to Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand. He boasted on Facebook of renting a helicopter for $1600 an hour.

His lifestyle was built on stolen money after Kelly cloned the name of a legitimate Western Australian finance company, M6 Securities Group. He also duplicated the company’s website and stole the identity of its director, Graham Anderson.

Operating out of a small office in Brisbane’s West End, he cold-called victims who thought they were investing in a business that bought and sold shares on the Australian and Singapore stock exchanges.

One victim lost $559,000.

Brian John Kelly was charged by Taskforce Maxima as part of Operation Mike Reflective.

His lifestyle was built on stolen money after Kelly cloned the name of a legitimate Western Australian finance company, M6 Securities Group

When another victim told of his previous negative experiences with investing, Kelly told him: “Not everyone out there is bad, Robert.”

The scam came to light when victims contacted the legitimate company and its director with complaints about being ripped off.

Anti-bikies Taskforce Maxima’s criminal economy unit led the investigation, codenamed Operation Mike Reflective, and arrested Kelly at his apartment in Brisbane’s Paddington in February 2014.

The offences were committed while Kelly was on bail after he was previously charged in Victoria with running an almost identical scam. His earlier charges, involving alleged fraudulent investment scam TJP Management, are yet to be finalised.

Queensland police have since charged him with offences relating to TJP Management, which allegedly fleeced victims of more than $1 million.