Greensborough car dealer fraud Curtlie Keeshan pleads guilty to obtain property by deception

A Greensborough dole bludger who posed as a millionaire auto genius to fleece friends has been bogged in for his bogus scheme.

Curtlie Keeshan pleaded guilty to obtain property by deception. Facebook.

A Greensborough dole bludger who claimed to have made millions selling a self driving car idea to Volkswagen to ruse family friends out of hard earned cash has avoided a jail term.

Curtlie Keeshan, 28, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to a two-year community correction order after pleading guilty to obtain property by deception.

Keeshan rorted $150,000 from family friends in separate swindles between November 2016 and March 2017.

The fraudster gleaned $100,000 from his first victim after claiming he sold “intellectual property to Volkswagen” for “$3 or $4 million”.

Keeshan told the victim he couldn’t access his bogus cash windfall because it was held up in a “trust”.

Keeshan spruiked a pie in the sky scheme to purchase cars in Perth and flip them for a profit.

The dodgy dealer claimed he could “make money” due to a “downturn” in Perth’s post mining boom car market.

Keeshan’s retired victim, who was looking for ways to earn extra money, invested $100,000 into the scheme.

Keeshan bought and sold a couple of cars but the venture went pear-shaped quickly.

Keeshan spent most of the cash on “living expenses”, the court was told.

The serial scoundrel repeated his Volkswagen ruse to rope another family friend into the scheme for $50,000.

Keeshan also told his victim he had “investors from around the world to the value of $6 million” but these funds were held up in the trust and business.

The victim lumped up the cash after Keeshan told her she would make 20 per cent on her “investment”.

The victim’s husband was also set to hand over $50,000 to Keeshan but changed his mind.

Keeshan produced a spreadsheet with fake business entries to keep both victims on the hop.

Keeshan also fibbed to his first victim that the “business” was “operating successfully”.

The victim requested his cash back but Keeshan sandbagged him with phony excuses included the old sent money to a wrong account fib.

Keeshan barely communicated with his second victim after siphoning her cash.

Police probed Keeshan’s bank records before arresting the grifter at his Greensborough home in August, 2018.

Keeshan told police it was his first victim’s idea to start the business and invest $100,000.

Keeshan, who claimed to have worked at car dealership, told police he “felt” he was “being pushed into doing something” but knew he “couldn’t deal with a lot of cars without a licence”.

Keeshan told police he told his first victim that he sold an idea about self driving cars to Volkswagen but the story “wasn’t true”.

Keeshan also told police he “panicked” when “nothing happened” and admitted he did not have “sufficient knowledge” to run the business.

The court heard Keeshan, a passionate car enthusiast, was on the dole living with his mum at the time of the offending.

Keeshan also bought and sold multiple cars because he “just liked driving nice or

different cars” and “would get bored of them after a short period of time”, the court was told.

Keeshan was convicted and ordered to repay the cash.

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