Tobacco retail boss sets up Playboy-style mansion and throws decadent parties — all to promote business

SURROUNDED by buxom women at decadent parties, the Gold Coast’s Hugh Hefner wannabe is aiming to beat the nation’s toughest advertising laws.

Travers Beynon and friends.

SURROUNDED by buxom, scantily-clad girls at decadent parties and even handing out Versace handbags, the Gold Coast’s Hugh Hefner wannabe aims to beat the nation’s toughest advertising laws.

With a collection of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces, Travers Beynon calls himself the Candyman and throws parties the Playboy founder would envy.

But it’s also about using social media to get around tobacco advertising rules.

Mr Beynon is heir to the FreeChoice tobacco empire and his new racy venture, dubbed the Candy Shop Mansion, is aimed at promoting sales.

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Travers Beynon and friends.

At the secluded riverfront mansion in River Cove Place at Helensvale, hedonistic parties rage with dozens of “Candy Shop goddesses”, mostly dressed in itsy-bitsy bikinis.

Strategically-placed signs advertising his business are placed around the mansion grounds and feature prominently in pictures and videos posted on Instagram and Facebook. Some of the social media post tags also mention FreeChoice.

The social media accounts show that some of the lucky ladies get more than a good time for attending, with exclusive Versace handbags handed out as a special “thank you” to certain partygoers.

Travers Beynon.

When he is not showing off the girls, Mr Beynon is featuring his car collection, with pictures of his Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari and Lamborghini all regularly posted.

Mr Beynon indicated the risque business initiative was about getting the Gold Coast-based company’s name out there without breaching strict advertising rules around tobacco.

Have you been to one of Mr Beynon’s parties? Tell us about them in the comments below

Travers Beynon during his modelling days.

He said his vision for the Candy Shop Mansion was born almost two decades ago.

“Through years of travelling, I gained plenty of inspiration,” he said in a statement provided exclusively to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Travers Beynon and friends.

“But my vision was always to develop and create a more entertaining party event — something akin to a Disneyland that adults could enjoy coupled with a similar hysteria to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for children.”

Mr Beynon said he also wanted to promote his philanthropic activities.

Girls at a party at Travers Beynon’s property.

“I’m most happy when I can entertain people and see that ‘wow’ sparkle in their eyes, and for that I ask nothing in return,” he said.

Mr Beynon describes himself as “a cross between The Great Gatsby, Hugh Hefner, The Wolf of Wall Street and Tony Stark, with a taste for Versace, who can easily turn into a Willy Wonka character”.

Travers Beynon and an unidentified friend with one of Mr Beynon’s cars.

The former model and young AFL star also says he is a family man.

Underneath the Candyman alter ego, Travers claims to be a family man

and father of four.

He is now married to Taesha, who has two children with, and he has two

children with former wife Ninibeth Leal, a Venezuelan model and Miss

World 1991.

“I’m a family man and father of four with a dog called Spartacus, and dedicated to hard work and helping others,” he said.

Travers Beynon and friends.

While his business interests are focus on FreeChoice and its various spin off ventures, he has also been involved in the development of software programs and has a property development company called Travers Developments.

FreeChoice Tobacco owner Travers Beynon.

Inside one of the parties

ONE man who attended a Travers Beynon party said it was bigger than a Wolf of Wall Street bash.

He said there were midgets dressed in togas and topless strippers.

“When I walked in there was a chick on a crane hanging upside down doing circus acts,” he said.

“There were Lamborghinis and Ferraris everywhere

Girls at one of the parties in a pic from Mr Beynon’s Instagram account.

“We were just laughing because he has permanent smoke machines and laser lights on his walls and there were lots of strippers, girls with fake boobs and midgets walking around in Roman costumes.”

The partygoer said that everyone stopped when a large helicopter escorted by three smaller ones roared towards the venue.

“He (Travers Beynon) arrived in four helicopters,” he said.

“Three helicopters to escort him and then when the big one landed he walked out with four or five chicks dressed as Roman goddesses.

“It was absolutely ridiculous but everyone got really into it. You could tell it was all fake and everyone was hired but it still got really wild.”

Travers Beynon when he was a male model.

Who is Travers Beynon?

● Drafted to North Melbourne AFL Football Club at 16, his footy career was short-lived thanks to a back injury.

● Spotted by modelling agent Greg Tyshing, Beynon moved to the United States in 1989 and spent the next 10 years modelling

● He returned to Australia in 1998 to join the business that his parents Trevor and Sandra set up in 1991

● Took over FreeChoice in 2006 as managing director.

Travers Beynon shows off some of his toys.

Cancer council shocked by tactics

THE Cancer Council Queensland has been shocked by news of an innovative marketing campaign linked to a locally-based tobacco business.

A spokeswoman for the organisation yesterday told the Gold Coast Bulletin it was concerned to discover Freechoice was being promoted through Candy Shop Mansion.

“It is extremely concerning that local businesses are promoting the act of smoking, and tobacco products, to young Queenslanders,” the spokeswoman said.

“The use of social media to advertise smoking and the sale of tobacco products ... undermines the strong tobacco control measures that have been introduced in Queensland to protect the community from the harmful effects of smoking.”

Tobacco advertising is against the law in Australia and there are restrictions about how tobacco products can be displayed in retail outlets and on the location of tobacco-vending machines.

The Cancer Council Queensland highlighted the fact that 500,000 adult smokers in the state were at risk of premature and preventable death.

“Smoking is estimated to cost the Queensland economy more than $6 billion each year, causing more than 3700 deaths and resulting in over 36,000 hospitalisations,” the spokeswoman said.

“Of serious concern, smoking-related illness and disease is responsible for one in five male deaths and one in 10 female deaths in Queensland each year, and 46 per cent of these are people younger than 75 years of age.”