Steven Rootsey: Jeremadra man’s role in nefarious puppy scheme revealed after Sydney women defrauded

New details have emerged into a shocking statewide puppy scam that has seen multiple women from Blacktown, Griffith, and Mortdale defrauded of thousands.

A South Coast labourer and small business owner has landed himself in court after becoming ensnared in an nefarious puppy scam that defrauded multiple women across the state.

Steven Rootsey pleaded guilty to four separate charges of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime after he was contacted by a man via Snapchat, asking for help from the Business Concrete Solutions’ owner.

“In mid-2021, the accused was contacted by a person on Snapchat. This person claimed to be unable to deal in cryptocurrency and wished to use the accused to convert money into cryptocurrency for him,” court documents state.

In return, Rootsey was promised 10 per cent of the exchange, which he admitted sounded “too good to be true”, according to the documents. Nonetheless, Rootsey is said to have found the man “very persuasive”.

On July 24 2021, Rootsey created a Westpac bank account in his own name and provided the details to the person via Snapchat.

A few days earlier, a Griffith woman had been searching the internet for Staffordshire puppies when she came across a website called: www.activestaffordshirebullterrierpuppies.com on July 16.

She contacted the website via email inquiring about puppies for sale, and received an email back from a man identifying himself as “Danny Wilson”. The woman agreed after a number of emails to purchase a puppy named Kenzo for a total of $1650.

“The victim was directed to deposit the money into the previously mentioned Westpac account in the name of the accused. The victim never received the puppy and received no further communications from the website,” the documents state.

“The victim reports as well as the financial stress the loss of money caused, her 10-year-old son suffered significant emotional distress after never receiving the puppy he had been promised.”

At least three more women were identified in court documents as having been defrauded.

An application by police to produce one of the bank accounts used revealed as many as 20 transactions had been received over a three-day period from July 26 to 28, with amounts varying from several hundred to several thousand.

Steven Rootsey pleaded guilty to four separate charges of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime after he was contacted by a man via Snapchat. Picture: Facebook

“The total value was $20,470. They were all from different account holders with reference to dogs and city permits,” the documents state.

“The accused converted 90 per cent of the total value into cryptocurrency as directed and transferred it into the person’s online accounts which are untraceable to local authorities.”

On July 11, a Blacktown woman was on a closed Facebook group called Golden Retrievers Australia when she saw a post by a member calling themselves Patricia Ammy advertising retrievers for sale.

The woman sent Ms Ammy a message and after receiving a number of photos, agreed to deposit $250 in a Bendigo and Adelaide Bank account in the name of “Steven John”.

“The victim explained she would be unable to pick up the dog for a week and then Covid lockdowns occurred so the victim would not be able to travel to pick up the dog,” the documents state.

“The offender explained if the victim transferred another $250, the offender could organise for a courier to deliver the dog to her. The victim complied and transferred an additional $250 to the same account on July 13 2021. Since this time the victim has received no further contact.”

On July 27, a Mortdale woman believed she had found a suitable dog on a website called classypuppyhome.com. She exchanged emails with the site, and agreed to deposit $900 to Rootsey’s Westpac account.

“She was then directed to deposit a further $780 into the same account for the transportation of the dog from Perth to Sydney and a further $820 for a city permit for the dog,” documents state.

A tracking number provided to the woman later proved to be fake. She never received the dog or a refund.

The final victim identified by police had exchanged a number of emails with a website called puppyhome.com when she was prompted to transfer a $400 deposit into a HSBC bank account.

The Middleton Grange woman never received the listed animal.

Inquiries made by police to the Scamwatch website revealed numerous complaints in Australia and internationally about a number of websites referenced in the court documents.

The websites have since been shut down, with checks on provided email addresses revealing that they originated from international IP addresses.

A phone number used to contact Rootsey also had an African area code.

On April 22, Rootsey voluntarily attended the Batemans Bay Police Station.

“Rootsey conceded he had made no inquiries about the legality or source of the money he was receiving into his account or why the person required the accused to convert it into cryptocurrency for them,” the documents state.

“He admitted the origin of the telephone number had made him suspicious, but he went ahead with the transactions. Police further allege the accused created new bank accounts with multiple banks to be able to continue the transactions in the case one or more accounts were frozen if identified as fraud.”

Appearing at the Batemans Bay Local Court on May 23, Rootsey pleaded guilty to all charges.

The case was adjourned so that reference letters could be compiled, as well as a sentencing report.