Luke Hemmings: Canberra recruitment agency boss’s past revealed

Luke Hemmings ‘ripped off’ a string of business partners across the country, and was once accused faking his own death.

A failed former regional Victoria real estate agent, radio DJ and music promoter — who was once accused of faking his own death — has resurfaced running recruitment agency in suburban Canberra.

Luke Hemmings is a failed former FM radio personality, music promoter and “real estate maven” who has left a string of unpaid debts across the country ever since leaving his hometown of Timboon.

Mr Hemmings is also known as Harrison O’Connor, Dean Broadbelt, Dene Broadbelt, Harrison Eyles, Dene Mussillon, Nic Lloyd and Clay O’Connor.

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

Mr Hemming’s mother, Suzanne Mussillon, and a business linked to them, became registered as employment agents in the ACT in May last year.

In recent months, the business, which trades out of an office above a Cheesecake Shop, began trading as Coceptive recruitment, with Mr Hemmings employed as “senior associate and growth leader”.

In a video on the company’s website, Mr Hemmings said he had “proved the critics wrong” since “launching” the business in August 2019, nine months before either his mother or the business were licensed employment agents.

“We definitely didn’t have mountains of cash to get us started,” he said.

Mr Hemmings told trade publication Recruitment Marketing last year he started the business when “I realised I wasn’t happy in real estate”.

Former DJ and real estate agent Luke Hemmings, pictured in happier times. Picture: Supplied/Luke Hemmings

Controversial former radio DJ, real estate agent and music promoter Luke Hemmings, who "ripped off" clients in failed business deals, has recently started a recruitment business in Canberra. Picture: YouTube

Mr Hemmings, who now lives on the south coast of NSW, was stripped of real estate licenses in South Australia and Victoria in 2018 and the Northern Territory in 2019 after licensing authorities raised concerns about his honesty.

He also came to the attention of the NSW regulator, which accused him of operating as an unlicensed agent on the south coast.

Mr Hemmings’s failed foray into real estate — including an ambitious venture in Ballarat — followed his promotion of a non-existent electro music festival, the Infinity Festival.

In his interview with the trade publication, Hemmings admitted he had “some failed business ventures” before he and Ms Mussillon started the recruitment business.

Those failures include running an internet radio station from his bedroom, promoting an X Factor pop musician, a planned biography called Too Good to be True, which has never been published, and working as an “anti-bullying advocate” in schools.

Luke Hemmings describes himself as a “damn fine negotiator”. Picture: YouTube

In a post on the recruitment agency’s page last Tuesday, Hemmings is described as “a damn fine negotiator”.

“When asked about his recipe for success, Luke says it all boils down to perseverance,” the post said.

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

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.

There is no allegation Mr Hemmings has engaged in any wrongdoing or dishonesty in his latest business venture.

Mr Hemmings did not respond to questions.

Originally published as Luke Hemmings: Canberra recruitment agency boss’s past revealed