Wellington Point Facebook motorcycle fraudster Izakk Albert Biggs, 27, foiled by tenacious victim

An undeterred Facebook fraud victim made a barrage of phone calls, messaged up to 13 times on one day, visited the residence of and uncovered his fraudster’s new phone number from associates.

A Facebook motorcycle fraudster with a history of dishonesty offending has been thwarted by his persistent victim who would not “just go away”.

Cleveland Magistrates Court on March 4 heard a 28-year-old Taiwanese student who paid a $1,000 deposit for a motorcycle advertised on Facebook, pursued a fraudster for a month until police were called in.

Wellington Point man Izakk Albert Biggs, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud – dishonestly gain benefit/advantage when he appeared at the court.

The court heard Biggs on August 12 wrote out a receipt to his unsuspecting victim for a $1,000 deposit and assured the motorcycle would be released the day after.

Numerous delays and excuses would follow, the court heard.

Ultimately claiming he could not provide the item because his mother had fallen ill Biggs tried to “sidestep” his victim’s increasingly desperate inquiries, first promising a money transfer which never eventuated, and going as far as to change his phone number and address.

Izakk Biggs leaves Cleveland Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to committing fraud during the sale of a motorcycle advertised on Facebook. Picture: Marcel Baum

A police prosecutor said the undeterred victim made a barrage of phone calls to Biggs, Facebook messaged him up to 13 times on one day, visited his residence and uncovered Biggs’ new phone number from associates.

When none of this succeeded the victim reported the matter to police on September 9, who would locate Biggs in Stones Corner on October 16.

The court heard the defendant was sentenced to one month’s prison with immediate parole in 2016 for a previous fraud, with his most recent criminal matter dealt with in 2019.

Defence solicitor Tania Lacy said “things went strange” in her client’s life when his mother fell ill and was “very remorseful, embarrassed and ashamed” but did have a genuine intention to sell the motorcycle, which he had since done.

Ms Lacy said the unemployed Biggs had a particularly challenging life – having lived out of a car for five years – previously struggled with drug addiction and had recently interviewed for work.

Magistrate Deborah Vasta urged the man to contribute to the community instead of “sucking resources from it” and lamented that Facebook fraud was “very easy”.

“He’s a 28-year-old student from Taiwan and you hoped he would just go away – he didn’t,” Magistrate Vasta said.

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Biggs was sentenced to 50 hours of community service and ordered to pay his victim $1,500 in restitution.

A conviction was recorded.