Melbourne sex offender Aran Spottiswood used fake name ‘Alan Dry’ to snare Brand Collective job

A Melbourne sex offender accountant who used a GoPro to film himself abusing a child got about town with a fake name to mask his vile past.

Melbourne GoPro sex fiend Aran Spottiswood pleaded guilty to sex crimes. Supplied.

A Melbourne sex predator created a fake alias to mask his vile sex offending and land himself a prime accounting job.

Aran Spottiswood, 30, resurfaced after he was sacked by Brand Collective Australia on May 14 this year.

Spottiswood, under the alias ‘Alan Dry’, signed an employment contract with Brand Collective on June 23 last year.

Brand Collective fired Spottiswood after learning he was a convicted a sex offender and he lied about being a registered chartered accountant.

The Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand disciplinary tribunal terminated Spottiswood’s membership in February 2022.

Spottiswood made a failed a Fair Work Commission unfair dismissal claim last month after he was sacked.

Brand Collective submitted Spottiswood failed to disclose his convictions which “would be incompatible with his duties of employment or the trust and confidence … to perform his role”.

Spottiswood, who held a finance accountant role, claimed his firing “provoked a mental health episode” which left him in an “unstable state”.

Spottiswood also submitted his life had “become increasingly challenging” after his “legal name” and offending were exposed in April this year.

Spottiswood claimed his “termination placed him in a debilitative and crippling state emotionally”.

Spottiswood sexually violated a 14-year-old girl at this park. Google.

Spottiswood also claimed the “final and most heavy blow” of the dismissal “placed him in an extraordinary category of severity and uniqueness”.

Spottiswood claimed he prioritised getting the dole instead of making his Fair Work application on time because as he had “run out of money” and “needed to maintain the ability to eat and have shelter”.

However, Spottiswood gave evidence he had been living with mum at the family’s Warrandyte home since May this year.

“He was therefore not homeless and presumably had access to food at his mother’s house,” Fair Work commissioner Sophie Mirabella said prior to dismissing Spottiswood’s application.

The commissioner also found there was no evidence the fiend legally changed his name.

Spottiswood said Aran Dry was the name he used with the “most important people in (my) new life”.

Spottiswood also submitted the “whole world” he had built around the name Alan Dry “unravelled”.

“It is not unreasonable … a convicted sex offender would lose the contacts he had made under his preferred name when such contacts discovered he was actually Aran Spottiswood and not Aran Dry,” commissioner Mirabella said.

“ (Spottiswood’s) criminal convictions and the events from mid-April 2024 are not ‘extraordinary circumstances that engulfed’ (Spottiswood’s) life as he claims.

“He is the architect of those circumstances … (he) is not a victim.

“He broke the law and was convicted of the sex offences … the position in which “ (Spottiswood) found himself is the position that would normally be expected of someone in his circumstances.

“ (Spottiswood) had created a false identity … he did so to avoid being known as a sex offender …”

Spottiswood also submitted he did not misrepresent that he was a CA ANZ member and Brand Collective “had the ability to check his membership … and they did not do so”.

Spottiswood also claimed Brand Collective “should have conducted a criminal history check on him if his offending was so important to them”.

(Spottiswood’s) reasoning in this regard is breathtaking,” commissioner Mirabella said.

“I find that he did misrepresent that he was a member of CA ANZ and that he changed his name to avoid being known as Aran Spottiswood.

“He did not change his legal name but conveniently uses his preferred name Aran Dry … (he) did so to create a ‘whole world’ in which his real identity was hidden …

“His criminal history is a relevant factor that should not have been hidden from his employer …

“ (Spottiswood) betrayed the trust and confidence placed in him by (Brand Collective).”

Spottiswood was sentenced in the County Court in August 2020 to a four-year jail term with a minimum of two years after pleading guilty to sexual penetration of a child under 16.

The grub met his victim on teen dating app MyLOL then messaged her via Snapchat.

The victim told Spottiswood she was “not interested” when he said he was 24.

Spottiswood set up a new Snapchat account this time pretending to be 19.

He chatted with his victim before the messages became “sexual” in nature.

Spottiswood picked the girl up in his car and drove her to Seabrook Reserve in Broadmeadows in March 2014.

He took the victim’s clothes off and sexually penetrated her.

Spottiswood later messaged the victim on Snapchat and asked her to send him nude images of herself.

Sign up to the eastern suburbs Leader newsletters

Spottiswood drove the girl back to Seabrook Reserve where he sexually penetrated her again.

This time he blindfolded his victim and filmed his depraved act with a GoPro camera.

A few days later Spottiswood drove his victim to Sewell Reserve in Glenroy where he sexually assaulted her.

Police patrolling the area spotted Spottiswood’s car and investigated.

Police determined Spottiswood’s and his victim’s age and arrested him.

Investigators seized Spottiswood’s GoPro and other devices which contained almost 2000 child abuse photos and videos.

Spottiswood, who grew up “well-educated” in a “privileged” household, attended Luther College in Croydon before studying commerce at Monash University.

Spottiswood was a highly regarded Monash student who remained involved with several school committees and extra-curricular activities after he graduated.

Spottiswood, who is a registered sex offender for life, was employed at several top firms prior to his arrest including Price Waterhouse Cooper.