Revealed: Gold Coast’s disgraced real estate agents
These Gold Coast agents found themselves in trouble in recent times for a range of reasons, from relatively small-time stuff-ups to dishonest dealings and more. SEE THE FULL LIST
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REAL estate experts entrusted with funds, finding families the perfect pad and drumming up property sales – but not all Gold Coast agents have been perfect in the community.
Take a look at industry players who found themselves in trouble in recent times for a range of reasons, from relatively small-time stuff-ups to dodgy dealings and more.
FALSE REPORTS
Leanne Karen Maynard pleaded guilty in Southport District Court in January 2018 to one count of making threats.
Maynard, 50, also known as Lea Maynard, threatened a man with false reports of indecently treating a child, the court was told.
She sent threatening texts to the elderly mother of a man in March 2016.
“He needs to pay me $20,000. Today,” the messages read.
“I cannot promise we won’t go to the authorities to report (the man’s) incident behaviour with (the child).”
The man had not been charged and there was no suggestion the allegations were true.
Crown prosecutor Clayton Wallis said Maynard and the man had been going through a bitter break-up.
A victim impact statement indicated the victim suffered from depression and anxiety after the threats were made, but he had no formal diagnosis.
Maynard was ordered to complete 140 hours community service over 12 months.
SERIAL ‘UPSKIRTER’
Nicholas Rhys Owen, 29, a former real estate agent, pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court in November 2018 to multiple charges, including invasion of privacy and obtaining and dealing with identification information.
Owen captured more than 290 videos up the skirts of unsuspecting women using a camera on his shoe or a bag. He posted the videos online as video montages, with accompany music.
He also had a side business selling Queensland licences, complete with holographic images for $75, the court was told.
Owen, an ice addict, also uploaded confidential police files online, purchased counterfeit cash off eBay and was found with drugs.
Owen was sentenced to a 15-month suspended sentence, after spending 152 days in custody, two years probation and fined $900.
Magistrate Gary Finger described the videos as the “ultimate invasion of women’s privacy” and said they were uploaded to a website which had 40 million hits.
DOZENS OUT OF POCKET
Former real estate agent Helen Elizabeth White, 66, took more than $290,000 of her clients’ money to keep a business afloat and to help pay for a friend’s living expenses.
More than 50 people made claims to get money returned and more than $236,000 had not been repaid when White faced Southport Magistrates Court in November 2018.
White pleaded guilty to 13 charges, including acting as a property agent without a licence, failing to pay money into a trust account and operating a trust account without chief executive approval.
Her husband Graham John White, 69, also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to have the trust account audited. He had been battling prostate cancer at the time.
White was sentenced to nine months jail suspended for an operational period of three years.
She was also slapped with a $10,000 fine and ordered she pay $92.90 in court costs.
Mr White was sentenced to a three-year, $5000 good behaviour bond and ordered to pay $92.90 costs.
Both Mr and Mrs White were banned from holding a real estate licence again.
Magistrate Mark Howden said: “She was duped into believing that she had this increasingly intimate relationship with this other woman and agreed to pay her expenses.”
Mr White was unaware of what was going on in the business because he was so unwell, the court was told.
SELLERS DECIEVED
Prominent agent Alex Far, the former sales director of Runaway Bay’s Sovereign Realty in Runaway Bay, was in 2016 permanently barred from holding a real estate licence after an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
QCAT was told Far presented a contract worth $1.1 million to the property sellers, concealing that the buyer was a deregistered corporation of which he was a former director.
Far also provided false information regarding the supposed payment of a $100,000 deposit into the agency’s trust account.
Suspicions were raised and Far produced a series of fake letters and emails related to the progress of the sale. He then wrote a fake letter terminating the contract.
QCAT considered Far’s lack of remorse and the effort he went to in falsifying documents and it was said it showed his intention to deceive the sellers in order to make a profit
Far, who not charged with criminal wrongdoing, was fined $5000.
UNLICENSED DEALINGS
Former Varsity Lakes real estate agent Kylie Jane Beecroft-Wilson, former sole director and principal licensee of Beecroft Wilson Real Estate Pty Ltd, pleaded guilty to operating as a real estate agent without a licence when she faced Southport Magistrates Court in June.
Beecroft-Wilson also pleaded guilty to making false representations that she held approval to supply real estate agency services for a period of time when she did not.
The court was told Beecroft-Wilson’s real estate agent’s licence and her company licence had expired in December 2018, but she continued to manage 11 properties and operate a real estate trust account in her corporation’s name, into which rent money was paid.
Beecroft-Wilson also operated a business account into which she deposited rental commissions, management and letting fees.
She was fined $5000 and a conviction was not recorded.
DISHONEST CONDUCT
Surfers Paradise real estate agent Gary Anthony Wyeth and his business were fined $65,000 for failing their legal obligations following an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation.
Wyeth, a licensed resident letting agent of Wyeth Management Services Pty Ltd, pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court in May 2019 to one count of providing falsified documents and one count of failing to pay trust money.
The court was told Wyeth provided falsified statements to one of his unit owner clients in an attempt to cover up a misappropriation of $3740.
In March 2018, the letting agent knowingly handed over documents that contained 33 months’ worth of misleading information to OFT inspectors in an attempt to hide his dealings.
In September 2018, receivers provided the OFT with a summary of 18 unit owners who had a combined rental shortfall of $81,501.09.
The court was told Wyeth engaged in a protracted and deliberate course of dishonest conduct.
FAMILY AFFAIR
Luxury real estate agent Sarah Penney-Filippini had her industry ban upheld for three years this year after she was banned from working in the industry in 2018.
Penny-Filippini, who ran Island Realty, allowed her unlicensed mother to negotiate a property sale.
She was ordered by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) to pay $3000 for failing to comply with trust account obligations and was banned from holding a real estate licence or salesperson certificate for three years.
QCAT found Penney-Filippini acted unprofessionally when she allowed her mother Heather Filippini to interact with a potential purchaser and negotiate a sale of a home in 2012.
Both women were not charged with criminal wrongdoing.
Heather Filippini was permanently banned from operating as a real estate agent in 2009.
Fair Trading executive Director Brian Bauer said agents who employed an unlicensed salesperson were not only unprofessional but contributed to a breakdown in consumer confidence in the industry.
MISAPPROPRIATED FUNDS
Former Gold Coast real estate agent Robert Ian Campbell pleaded guilty in Beenleigh Magistrates Court in June 2019 to 12 offences, including making unauthorised withdrawals of funds from a trust account and dishonestly converting trust account money for his own use.
Campbell, 69, was sentenced to three months jail, wholly suspended for 18 months.
In June 2018, Mr Campbell pleaded guilty on behalf of Realty Brokers Pty Ltd to 11 charges relating to unauthorised trust account withdrawals totalling $121,000.
The agency was fined $5000.
At the time, Mr Campbell avoided individual prosecution by putting a plan in place to repay money without consumers suffering financial loss.
But he did not repay the money after Realty Brokers Pty Ltd was placed into liquidation.
Campbell was later prosecuted by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for the original charges, and one additional charge of misappropriating funds that led to a shortfall of $24,000 in the agency’s sales trust account
Fair Trading acting executive director Craig Turner said: “Money held in trust does not belong to real estate agents and it must only ever be disbursed to the person entitled to it. This is a legal requirement.”
“The OFT will continue to investigate allegations of real estate agents who are not meeting this requirement and will take action where necessary,” he said.
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