Aaron Neil Cavallaro to stand trial over Miami hotel manager abduction

A spray painter accused of helping bundle a Gold Coast hotel manager into a car and forcing him to hand over thousands of dollars before he was left on the side of a Brisbane road will face trial.

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A SPRAY painter accused of helping bundle a Gold Coast hotel manager into a car and forcing him to hand over thousands of dollars before he was left on the side of a Brisbane road will face trial.

Aaron Neil Cavallaro was committed to stand trial when he appeared via video link the Southport Magistrates Court on Monday on multiple charges including extortion, deprivation of liberty, robbery and fraud.

It is alleged Cavallaro and a group of other people grabbed the Miami Hotel manager on a night in December last year and forced him into a car.

It is alleged it was a case of mistaken identity and the group were actually looking for someone else.

Cavallaro is alleged to have arrived at the hotel when others in the group, armed with a hammer, had already grabbed the hotel manger.

He is alleged to have helped force the manager to make bank transfers and withdraw cash – resulting in him giving them $15,808, police allege.

At one point the man was threatened with a rusty hammer and told to get in the BMW’s boot, it is alleged.

It is alleged the incident only ended when the men let the hotel manager out of the car in inner Brisbane.

Aaron Neil Cavallaro. Picture: Facebook

Defence lawyer Alan Phillips, of Phillips Lawyers, consented to the matter being committed to trial in the Southport District Court without Magistrate Michelle Dooley considering the evidence.

He said Cavallaro had a place to live in Toowoomba “a long way away from the alleged offending”.

Magistrate Dooley denied bail.

She said she considered Cavallaro an “unacceptable risk of failing to appear, committing an offence or interfering with witnesses”.

Cavallaro will face trial in the Southport District Court in the coming months.

DECEMBER 11: WOMAN CHARGED WITH STRING OF OFFENCES

A WOMAN has been charged over her alleged involvement in an abduction at a Gold Coast hotel.

The Forest Lake woman was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with a string of offences including fraud, kidnapping, robbery and deprivation of liberty.

Police said a 38-year-old man was allegedly assaulted at a Miami hotel and forced into a car where he was made to transfer thousands out of his bank accounts on November 28.

He was later dumped in Brisbane, police allege.

The woman is due to appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Friday.

Aaron Neil Cavallaro has also been charged over the incident. He has been refused bail and will return to court next week.

A court has previously heard a case of mistaken identity led to the alleged victim being bundled into a car and robbed.

Investigations are ongoing.

EARLIER: COURT TOLD OF ‘MISTAKEN IDENTITY’

A CASE of mistaken identity led to a Gold Coast hotel manager being bundled into a car, forced to hand over thousands of dollars and dumped on a Brisbane road1side, a court was told.

It was alleged in Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday that Aaron Neil Cavallaro intended the group grab another man at the Miami hotel on Saturday night.

Despite the mistake, the men still forced the hotel manager, 38, to make bank transfers and withdraw cash – resulting in him giving them $15,808, police allege.

At one point the man was threatened with a rusty hammer and told to get in the BMW’s boot, it is alleged.

Aaron Neil Cavallaro. Picture: Facebook

The court was told the incident only ended when the men let the hotel manager out of the car in inner Brisbane.

Cavallaro, 30, faces 11 charges over the incident including deprivation of liberty, extortion, robbery and fraud.

The Pimpama man is yet to enter a plea but denies the allegations.

Magistrate Kathleen Payne denied Cavallaro bail.

She noted the allegations were that Cavallaro knew a man at the hotel and the hotel manager had been attacked mistakenly.

“The defendant’s account given is that he simply wanted the person he knew at the hotel to be attacked as he watched on,” she said.

No reason was given why Cavallaro allegedly wanted to see the person beaten up.

Magistrate Payne said the denied bail because she did not find the risk of reoffending or the risk of failing to appear could be alleviated.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Nicole Conditsis told the court Cavallaro was not in the BMW that the hotel manager was forced into, but in another car.

Sgt Conditsis said Cavallaro’s car was at the hotel when the manager was taken and was captured on CCTV when the group stopped at a petrol station to force the man to take out more cash.

“There was communication between the vehicles,” Sgt Conditsis told the court.

“The complainant hears the other males ask for his (Cavallaro) bank account details so he can transfer money to his bank account.”

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She told the court Cavallaro was convicted in 2015 for trafficking firearms in Tasmania.

Defence lawyer Ethel Ndombi, of Legal Aid Queensland, said Cavallaro denied being involved in any sort of assault on the victim or requests for money or property.

She said he did not go into the hotel room.

Ms Ndombi told the court he was not in the vehicle when the extortion is alleged to have occurred.

“It is not clear he has any awareness about what is unfolding, at least when in the vehicle,” she said.

Ms Ndombi told the court Cavallaro worked spray-painting boats and yachts.

The matter will return to court on December 17.

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