Jake Matthew Friel pleads guilty to obtaining property by deception

A Highton man obtained fraudulent funds of around $300,000 to purchase luxury cars and an $80,000 boat.

Jake Friel. Picture: Facebook

A Highton construction worker purchased luxury cars and a boat after fraudulently obtaining about $300,000 worth of loans.

Jake Matthew Friel, 34, pleaded guilty to 59 charges in the Geelong Magistrates Court this week, with the most serious being obtaining property by deception.

Friel’s sophisticated offending involved taking loans out in other people’s names by providing falsified identity documents to finance companies.

Friel initiated a fraudulent loan application through a finance broker on February 23, 2021, which was eventually approved for $81,750.

The court heard the loan was used to purchase a boat from Bayswater.

A victim contacted police on March 9, 2021 and informed them that a fraudulent loan had been taken out in his name.

Investigators discovered Friel was behind the loan application.

They then tracked email communications to the financial institution and were able to find an IP address, which belonged to Friel’s home address.

Just over a year later, police executed a search warrant in Grovedale and impounded a BMW M4, which had been purchased by Friel for $100,000.

Senior Constable David Vanderpol said the VIN number on the dash of the BMW was false and that Friel purchased the car through a loan he fraudulently obtained.

The court heard the vehicle was paid for over two instalments of $49,000.

In December last year, Friel was placed on bail, and as part of those conditions he wasn’t allowed to leave Victoria.

But Friel, along with other co-accused, proceeded to go Sydney on December 20, 2023 to purchase a white Audi for $112,000 using fraudulent funds.

On December 21, 2023 at 3.20am, he was intercepted by police on the Princes Freeway near Werribee.

A search of the car found pills, documents not belonging to him, a number of mobile phones, a Jetstar plane ticket not in his name, five identification cards which did not belong to him, a plastic container with a white substance, and a number of other items.

The court heard Friel had obtained a loan through a finance broker by providing false documents.

These include a driver’s licence, Medicare card, falsified pay slips, income statements and expense summaries.

Friel’s lawyer, Lauren Tye, said her client has had a number of chronic conditions which contributed to his drug use over the years, as well as his offending.

Ms Tye also told the court her client had “effectively now lost everything” and had also gotten himself in significant personal debts.

Friel will be sentenced in court next Thursday.

Originally published as Jake Matthew Friel pleads guilty to obtaining property by deception