Melissa Caddick used parents’ unit money to buy diamond ring

It can be revealed that missing conwoman Melissa Caddick bought a diamond ring with the money her parents gave her to buy them an apartment.

Conwoman Melissa Caddick bought herself a diamond ring with the $1.154,000 her parents gave her to buy them a home and told one of her trusting investors that her dog had eaten their cheque, the Federal Court has revealed.

How the missing businesswoman got away for eight years while she ripped off her own parents along with 72 investors of $23,554,921 has been detailed in a court judgment handed down on Wednesday into her complicated financial fraud.

Caddick spent thousands gifted to her by her parents for a unit on a diamond ring. Picture: Facebook

Justice Brigitte Markovic, who on Monday appointed receivers and liquidators to Caddick’s affairs, said yesterday that she was satisfied Caddick had used her “investment” company Maliver as her “alter ego” and a front for her Ponzi scam.

One investor, Sue Coetzee, had given Caddick a $450,000 cheque correctly made out to CommSec for Caddick to invest the funds but the fraudster had to cover up the fact that she had no legitimate CommSec account - so she told Ms Coetzee that her dog had eaten the cheque.

“Sue, I am very sorry but my dog has somehow gotten a hold of the cheque you gave and chewed it up, I won’t be able to deposit it,” Caddick told her in July 2019.

She asked Ms Coetzee to write out another cheque payable to Maliver.

Caddick allegedly swindled thousands from people who trusted her with their investment money. Picture: Andy Baker.

After she went missing from her $7 million Dover Heights mansion 16 months, Ms Coetzee and her husband visited their local bank and discovered there were no CommSec accounts in their name. They had invested $900,000 with Maliver but all but $49,608 back.

Justice Markovic said she was satisfied that Caddick, who disappeared in November 2020 after a corporate raid on her home, had intermingled the funds of Maliver with her own and spent them on herself.

The judge said the court may have to decide whether Caddick’s parents, Barbara and Ted Grimley, can live for life in the Edgecliff penthouse as Caddick promised when she bought it in her name.

Caddick’s $6.4 million Dover Heights home is among the assets to be sold off to help repay money owed to investors.

Her parents, who are not accused of any wrongdoing, claimed that the $1.154,000 they gave their daughter from the sale of their Connell’s Point home in April 2017 was used by her to buy their penthouse.

But the judge said the financial evidence showed that Caddick bought the penthouse using investor funds before her parents’ property was sold “therefore Caddick’s parents did not contribute to the purchase”.

The analysis of her accounts showed that Caddick used her parents’ money to buy a diamond ring and pay for living expenses while mixing the rest with other money from investors.

Justice Markovic said there were “competing priorities” over the Edgecliff apartment. The receivers Jones Partners cannot sell any of the properties, including Dover Heights and an Aspen ski lodge, and return the money to investors without court approval.

The conclusion of the police investigation into Caddick’s disappearance were redacted from the judgment. Her foot was found on a south coast beach in February but an inquest has not yet been held to determine her fate.

A “contradictor” appointed by the court to argue Caddick’s case in her absence, had said that the Federal Court should not appoint receivers until after an inquest incase she was still alive.

The judge said that in such extraordinary circumstances, the “receivers must act with caution”.

“In my opinion the evidence establishes that Maliver was a vehicle through which Ms Caddick operated and was able to perpetrate a fraud on investors. That is, it was a sham or façade adopted to conceal the reality and was used by Ms Caddick for that purpose.”