Fat fraudster John Griffiths rorted $325,000 via Gumtree racket, blew cash on gambling, pizza
A travelling conman pulled off one of the biggest single-person Gumtree scams in Australia’s history by fending off investigators with Catch Me if You Can techniques but his thirst for the punt and large pizzas weighed this Wodonga fraudster down in the end.
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An obese fraudster rorted almost $325,000 via a protracted Australia-wide Gumtree racket.
John Griffiths, 39, pleaded guilty in the County Court on Thursday to more than 100 fraud-related charges.
Griffiths — Aka Jonathon Simmons — fleeced $323,873 from 99 victims based across the country between August 2013 and September 2019.
The travelling conman lived in Victoria, NSW, South Australia and the Northern Territory while rorting his hapless marks.
Griffiths’ modus operandi was to post non-existent expensive electronic goods such as Apple MacBooks, cameras, computers, DJ equipment and drones for sale on online classified site Gumtree.
However, Griffiths, from Indigo Valley near Wodonga, pocketed his victims’ cash then vanished.
One of Griffith’s early victims was an East Bentleigh man who handed over $1600 for a non-existent MacBook.
Many of Griffiths’ other victims were also from Melbourne.
Griffiths strung his victims along with excuses before eventually severing all contact.
The shrewd fraudster concocted Catch Me if You Can techniques to lure victims and evade authorities.
Griffiths opened a new Gumtree account for every scam and used multiple bank accounts, various betting accounts and a virtual credit card to launder the money.
Griffiths also burned through more than 100 SIM cards linked to multiple burner phones — some of which he placed in the name of family members.
Griffiths, who said he swapped SIM cards every “6-8 weeks”, also had online access to his mother’s bank account.
The slippery scammer also used various aliases and email addresses, moved regularly from state to state and lied to victims about his actual location.
Griffiths was wanted by police from around the country but it was Wodonga detective Leading Senior Constable Sarah Patrick who picked up the scent.
In 2018, Sen-Constable Patrick figured out all the frauds were committed by the same offender.
The investigation remained dormant until May 2019 when Sen-Constable Patrick linked a mobile number to an Indigo Valley associated with Griffiths.
Griffiths was arrested at the property in December last year.
He admitted the racket had funded his gambling problem which had “snowballed” shortly after getting out of prison in 2013.
Griffith told investigators he held an account with “just about every bank in Australia” while he offended.
The court was told Griffiths caught the gambling bug while studying commerce at RMIT.
It was submitted Griffiths won $10,000 at his first visit to Crown Casino but it all went downhill from there.
Griffiths, unemployed during the entire offending period, told police he was a “degenerate” gambler who dumped his cash on “sporting events” via multiple betting agency accounts.
The scammer also claimed he wanted to repay his victims but was “deluded” to think he could gamble to get their money back.
Griffiths estimated most of the cash was blown on gambling, pizza and “minimal living expenses”.
Griffiths testified via videolink from his remand prison that he got fat eating pizzas every night but had lost 30kg while on remand.
“It felt amazing,” he said.
Judge Gavan Meredith will sentence Griffiths on October 8.
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