Muhammed Ayyildiz: Fraudster’s dodgy deed lands on the scrap heap

A scam that cost an innocent person their Volkswagen and Subaru has come unstuck with the fraudster sentenced in Wollongong Local Court. Find out what happened.

A Wollongong man was sentenced on Tuesday for carrying out a botched scrap metal scam last year.

Muhammed Ayyildiz appeared in Wollongong Local Court charged with a string of driving offences as well as dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and dealing with proceeds of crime less than $100,000.

Magistrate Greg Elks sentenced Ayyildiz to an aggregated two-year intensive corrections order and banned him from driving for three years.

The fraud offences stem back to the first quarter of 2021 when Ayyildiz arranged for three vehicles to be taken to the scrap heap, the only problem was he didn’t own any of them.

On March 29 last year, Ayyildiz contacted the owner of a towing company and asked for an unregistered Volkswagen Transporter (with a Kawasaki WRX motorcycle in the back) and a blue Subaru to be towed to the scrap yard.

Muhammed Ayyildiz was caught trying to make money off scrapping another person’s vehicles.

The vehicles were collected from a property on New Dapto Rd in Wollongong and taken to separate scrap yards in Kemps Creek and Fairfield East.

Once the owner of the vehicles and New Dapto Rd address alerted authorities they were able to track down where they had gone, however, they were only able to return the motorcycle with the Volkswagen and Subaru consigned to the scrap heap for a combined return of $900.

On April 1, police interviewed the owner of the towing company who said he knew Ayyildiz “loosely through religion”.

NewsLocal is not suggesting anyone other than Ayyildiz was involved in the scam.

The officers found Ayyildiz’s listed residence in Cringila, but when they went to the McGovern St address he was nowhere to be found.

Muhammed Ayyildiz was sentenced in Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday.

A week later, after a tip-off, police arrested Ayyildiz at a property on Strathearn Ave in Wollongong which was followed by the fraudster showing police an email with a receipt for a payment of $330 for the removal of the vehicles.

The email address was associated to a John Pittson, however police were unable to find any record of this person existing.

Police contacted the owner of the bank account on the receipt, but he said he didn’t receive a $330 payment, he didn’t know the owner of the vehicles, he hadn’t organised the removal of any vehicles and he had never heard of Ayyildiz.

The investigations then turned towards the name of the person on the receipt who sent the money, a person who also lives on New Dapto Rd, however there was no trace of a $330 outlay on their bank statement and they also had no idea who Ayyildiz was.

The ICO will expire on May 30, 2024.