The Star takes man to court over customer blackmail threat

A Sydney man made an extraordinary move against The Star after being rejected for a job, at the same time he was separating from his girlfriend, who was a manager at the venue.

The disgruntled would-be staffer threatened to leak guests’ private details. Picture: Brendon Thorne

A man who lost out on a job at The Star after failing to disclose his criminal record tried to blackmail the casino into firing his estranged girlfriend by threatening to expose guests’ private details, a court has heard.

The man, who can only be referred to as ‘AB’ by court order, emailed the casino’s HR department on April 7 this year saying if his girlfriend, a manager with The Star Entertainment Group, was not “relieved of her duty’s (sic) by 10am” that day he would “expose all the customers banking and privacy for the public …”.

AB attached screenshots to his email of what The Star said appeared to be patron information obtained from its internal database.

The court heard the ex-girlfriend, who was given the pseudonym ‘CD’, had access to the database as part of her employment and that AB had accessed it via her mobile phone without authorisation.

The man sent screenshots of the internal system, by accessing his ex-partner’s phone, a court heard.

The Daily Telegraph understands no publication of any private details did actually occur.

Details of the extraordinary and bizarre case were revealed for the first time this week after the NSW Supreme Court published its decision to grant a permanent injunction prohibiting AB from releasing any information he might still have.

The court heard AB applied for a job with the casino in January but was rejected after a mandatory police check revealed he had failed to disclose his lengthy criminal record which included charges of dishonesty, car theft, breaching domestic violence orders and traffic offences.

Justice Michael Meek said around the same time, AB’s relationship with CD had deteriorated and they were in the process of separating.

The court heard AB sent the blackmail email a little over week after failing to land the casino job.

The Star’s investigations manager, Adrian Borchok, messaged AB after being made aware of the email and told him he was exposing himself to “civil and criminal liability” if he went ahead with the release of “private and confidential customer data”.

AB then phoned Mr Borchok and repeated his demand that the company fire CD.

“She has to go or I will put the information out,” he said.

The Star commenced urgent legal action to stop the disclosure, serving AB with a summons within 48 hours.

Court documents said AB later emailed a solicitor for The Star and attempted to apologise, saying he had been “heavy on alcoholic (sic) and drugs” when he sent the blackmail threat and couldn’t remember what he’d done.

“I don’t recall any of this, I’m sorry, I don’t have nothing to be honest just was in a different world I don’t even remember doing or saying this,” he wrote.

The would-be staffer lost out on a job after failing to reveal his criminal history.

In a second email sent a few weeks later, AB said he had been in a “drug-induced depression” at the time and was now in rehab.

He also absolved CD of any responsibility, saying “if you’re thinking [she] had anything to do with this then you cannot be more wrong”.

Neither the court nor The Star have received any further communication from AB, it was revealed, and he was not in attendance in court when the permanent injunction was granted.

The case is the latest in a string of problems that has plagued The Star, which had its licence suspended indefinitely in 2022 after an inquiry found it had not met its obligations to prevent money laundering and other mis­conduct.

A second licensing inquiry costing taxpayers $4 million has just concluded, with a report set to be delivered to the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) later this year.

Meanwhile, NSW Police last month launched an investigation after a Chinese national was busted using $34,000 worth of counterfeit chips at tables throughout the venue.

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