Ultra Tune tycoon Sean Buckley faces threat to kill charge, stalking

High-flying Ultra Tune tycoon Sean Buckley faces 12 charges including stalking his ex, having a hidden camera installed in her apartment and threats to kill an ex-mate who ran his strip club.

HIGH-flying Ultra Tune businessman Sean Buckley has been hit with 12 charges including stalking his ex-girlfriend, having a hidden camera installed at her apartment and threats to kill a former friend who managed his strip club.

Mr Buckley, 61, who resides on the Gold Coast, was charged this week with the criminal offences which could land him in jail.

Victoria Police say they have also charged two other men following an alleged stalking incident in Melbourne’s CBD last year.

“A 61-year-old Melbourne man has been charged with 12 offences including two counts of make threats to kill, four counts of stalking, recklessly cause injury, maintain listening device, installing optical device and assault related matters,” a police statement said.

Another man, 40, from Melbourne man has also been charged with four counts of stalking and maintain listening device.

A 43-year-old Melbourne man has also been charged with two counts of stalking and installing an optical device.

The 43-year-old man is former Mick Gatto associate Anthony Swords, who worked for Mr Buckley before a falling out.

The Bulletin understands the stalking charges are in connection to Mr Buckley allegedly stalking his former partner and bikini model Jennifer Cruz Cole to her Melbourne CBD apartment and enlisting others to install a hidden camera.

Mr Buckley, Mr Swords and the other man will appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on November 16.

It comes in the wake of Supreme Court action Mr Buckley took to suppress Ms Cruz Cole revealing allegedly scandalous phone recordings of him.

Sean Buckley (left) and Jennifer Cruz Cole.

It led to an investigation by Victoria Police after obtaining a recording of Mr Buckley inside a Crown Casino suite.

The recording allegedly contains a threat directed at the former manager of Mr Buckley’s Surfers Paradise strip club, Jimmy “Mr Vegas” Seoud.

Mr Seoud said he was relieved police had taken action.

“I’m a bit relieved that the police have done something about it and taken it seriously.”

Sean Buckley and ex-partner Jennifer Cruz Cole.

Mr Seoud and Mr Buckley – who had been friends for 14 years – fell out during the 18 months Mr Seoud ran Mr Buckley’s Surfers Paradise strip club Toybox Showgirls.

Mr Seoud – living rent free in a Surfers apartment and driving a brand new Mercedes Benz with “Mr Vegas” number plates when he managed Toybox Showgirls – was sent a termination letter in December, 2019.

He took out a Fair Work Commission case for alleged unfair dismissal but lost the case due to applying outside the required time frame.

In January this year, Mr Seoud told the Bulletin his lawyer would be lodging an appeal to his unfair dismissal case due to new information coming to light.

Ultra Tune boss Sean Buckley (left) and Jimmy Seoud.

Mr Buckley – whose Ultra Tune car repair and roadside assist chain has almost 300 franchises nationwide – has also been locked in legal action to suppress tapes his former partner and bikini model Ms Cruz Cole recorded of him.

The pair have been locked in a Supreme Court battle since the start of the year to suppress the recordings made during the latter part of their relationship as he travelled between the Gold Coast and Melbourne.

In an initial Supreme Court skirmish in February, lawyer John Searle, for Mr Buckley, told the court the secret tape recordings were made without his client’s consent and public release would put Mr Buckley’s reputation “in significant peril” and cause “extraordinary economic loss”.

A separate lawyer for Mr Buckley has previously said the multi-millionaire has nothing to “fear” on the recordings and believed they had been “cut and spliced”.

Zoe Davis, for Ms Cole, told the court at the time the recordings were subject to a criminal investigation.

Jennifer Cruz Cole who looks after her and Mr Buckley’s three year old daughter.

Ms Cole – who appeared in Ultra Tune’s most recent TV commercial starring Baywatch icon Pamela Anderson – and Mr Buckley were an item from 2017 until last year. At times they lived at Crown in Melbourne where one of the recordings at the centre of the court action was made.

Ms Cole, who looks after their three-year-old daughter, lost a recent legal fight, pleading guilty to contempt for texting a secret recording to other parties.

She had been ordered not to share the recording in the earlier civil proceeding brought by Mr Buckley as part of a desperate bid to permanently suppress the audio. She was fined $500.