Ex-Star executive Harry Theodore fronts court over bitter battle with Hunters Hill neighbour

Fresh off a legal drubbing by the Federal Court, ex-Star executive Harry Theodore has found himself in a court battle with his closest neighbour in the ritzy suburb of Hunters Hill.

Former casino executive Harry Theodore isn’t having a very good year, by all accounts.

Fresh out of the Federal Court, where he was recently fined $60,000 and copped a nine-month ban from managing corporations after falling foul of the corporate regulator, the ex-Star chief financial officer found himself back inside a Sydney courtroom this week waging a bitter legal battle with his closest neighbour.

Mr Theodore — one half of a two-lot strata scheme in the well-heeled suburb of Hunters Hill — is at odds with his neighbour, former NSW Department of Education employee, Margaret Frangos, with the two going head-to-head in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal in September 2024 after lodging counterclaims against each other.

The tribunal found the pair’s neighbourly relationship was so fractured that an independent third party, by way of a compulsory strata managing agent, should be installed to act as referee between the duo.

While court documents did not reveal the full nature of the dispute, one issue seems to be the location of an electricity charger, while another appears to involve a frozen bank account.

Star Entertainment’s chief financial officer Harry Theodore.

Mr Theodore’s neighbour, Margaret Frangos. Picture: LinkedIn

However, Ms Frangos appealed the September 2024 decision to NCAT’s appeals panel, claiming she’d been denied “procedural fairness” amid claims Mr Theodore spoke for longer than she did at the original hearing.

The claim prompted the appeal panel, consisting of Graham Ellis SC, a former Papua New Guinea Supreme Court judge, and experienced lawyer Nicole Kennedy, to trawl through a recording of the initial hearing and tally up, minute-by-minute, how long both Ms Frangos and Mr Theodore addressed the court.

They found Ms Frangos spoke for just under 80 minutes, and Mr Theodore just over 80 minutes, during which time they said both parties were given ample opportunity to respond to evidence and allegations raised by the other.

“The hearing was conducted in a fair and equitable manner,” the panel said in its judgment, published on Thursday.

“The time taken by [Mr Theodore] was not lop-sided when compared to that provided to [Ms Frangos. That allegation was inaccurate and must, as a result, be rejected.”

Meanwhile, Ms Frangos also claimed the decision to install the independent agent was not “fair and equitable”, alleging the agent had a pre-existing relationship with Mr Theodore, and that she had “new evidence” to put before the court.

The Avenue, Hunters Hill. Picture: Google Maps

It included a reference suggesting that police had been called to the location five times, however no further detail was given in the judgment about who contacted police or the reason for their visits.

The appeal panel rejected all of Ms Frangos claims and unheld the original decision, finding Ms Frangos had failed to prove any of her claims.

The bitter dispute caps off a tough first half of 2025 for Mr Theodore, who found himself on the receiving end of a $60,000 fine and a nine-month suspension from corporate management following a ruling by the Federal Court that he breached his executive duties while working for The Star Entertainment Group.

In a statement on its website, ASIC says Mr Theodore was found to have breached the Corporations Act by failing to prevent Star from sending correspondence to National Australia Bank in November 2019 which contained “inaccurate, incomplete and misleading representations” about the use of China Union Pay cards for gambling purposes at NAB terminals located within Star’s casino.