Luke Hemmings under investigation over $720k business failure

A former failed Ballarat real estate agent’s latest business venture has imploded with an estimated $720,000 in debt.

Failed former FM radio DJ, music promoter and real estate agent Luke Hemmings’s latest business venture has imploded, with an estimated $720,000 in debt.

Hemmings, who has also gone by the aliases Dean Broadbelt, Dene Broadbelt, Dene Mussillon, Harrison Eyles, Nic Lloyd and Clay O’Connor, resurfaced earlier this year as the “senior associate and growth leader” of a suburban Canberra recruitment agency, Coceptive Recruitment, following a string of failed ventures in country Victoria and the south coast of New South Wales.

Hemmings first made a name for himself during a short-lived career as an FM radio personality in Goulburn, before racking up a string of debts from his failed ventures as a concert promoter, a photographer and a self-described “real estate maven”.

Dene Broadbelt, now known as Luke Hemmings, arrives at the Downing Centre on November 7, 2018.

The company which was trading as Coceptive Recruitment, Lindsay Ellison Group, registered for insolvency last month.

The company’s liquidators, Chifley Advisory, estimate it had $720,000 in debts owing to a financial backer and to its suppliers.

Chifley Advisory is also investigating whether the company, and Mr Hemmings, might be involved in potential “phoenix” activity after a recruitment business trading under a similar name — Coceptive Consulting Group — began operating from the old company’s rented office above a Cheesecake shop in the Canberra suburb of Phillip.

Mr Hemmings is listed on the new company’s website as its “growth leader” while his mother, Suzanne Mussillon, with whom he lives on the NSW south coast, is described as its “group managing director”.

Dean Broadbelt, also known as Luke Hemmings, pictured in happier times. Picture: www.denebroadbelt.com.au

ASIC records for the new business, formally known as Lambert Willcox Group, list Ms Mussillon as its director and sole shareholder, while Mr Hemmings is listed as its alternate director and secretary.

News Corp is not suggesting any of the allegations of pheonixing are true, only that they are being investigated by the liquidator.

Ms Mussillon became a licensed employment agent last April, months after the old business was claimed to have begun operating.

Mr Hemmings describes himself as a “damn fine negotiator” and has said his “recipe for success … all boils down to perseverance”.

Mr Hemmings has never been charged with a white collar offence, but a real estate licensing tribunal found he had made “false and misleading” statements to cover up the “egregious reality” of his business history.

Mr Hemmings’s failed foray into real estate included an ambitious venture in Ballarat

In 2018 he pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to harass his former personal trainer in a series of late night phone calls, but a NSW magistrate dismissed the charge on mental health grounds.

Mr Hemmings did not respond to a message left with his office and has also previously failed to respond to written questions sent to his lawyers.

Originally published as Luke Hemmings under investigation over $720k business failure